Palestinian land taken by Jordan
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Executive summary
Israel is constructing a new 22-kilometre barrier in the northern Jordan Valley that Haaretz and other outlets report will cut Palestinians off from roughly 11,000 acres (about 4,450 hectares) of farmland, uproot infrastructure and require demolition of homes and pens along its route [1] [2]. Human-rights and regional analysts say the move follows a broader push to control the Jordan Valley — a third of the West Bank by area — and risks deepening displacement, cutting off water and commerce, and undercutting any viable contiguous Palestinian state [3] [4].
1. Barrier, not border: what’s being built and where
The Israeli military project described in Haaretz and summarized in The Guardian is a 22-km-long internal “barrier” or fence inside the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, at least 12 km west of the international Jordan border, that the army frames as a security measure but that will physically sever villages from their fields and neighbouring communities [1] [2] [5].
2. The immediate impact: acres lost, homes demolished
Reporting specifies that construction will cut Palestinian farmers and shepherds off from around 11,000 acres of land and that military documents anticipate demolition of homes, sheep pens and other infrastructure deemed “operational vulnerabilities”; residents were given days to file objections [1] [2].
3. Motive debate: security argument vs. land-control charge
The IDF and Israeli officials present the barrier as security-driven; critics and local lawyers say there has been scarce recent lethal activity in the affected zones and argue the project uses an isolated 2024 shooting as a pretext to seize fertile land — a charge echoed by analysts cited in The Guardian and Haaretz [5] [1].
4. Strategic stakes: water, agriculture and territorial contiguity
The Jordan Valley is agriculturally vital and contains key water resources; advocates warn that fencing and related controls — plus settler takeovers of springs and restrictions on water access — will amplify food insecurity and economic collapse for Palestinian communities, reinforcing broader Israeli control of the valley [3] [6].
5. Patterns on the ground: settler violence and administrative tools
Local monitoring groups report rising settler attacks and administrative measures in the valley — thousands of incidents recorded in 2024 and into 2025 and use of mechanisms such as declarations of military training zones, state land or immediate demolitions — which together shape a “silent annexation” dynamic, according to NGOs and the Foundation for Middle East Peace [6] [7].
6. Wider political context: annexation talk and regional alarm
The barrier sits within a political environment where annexation proposals and Knesset moves concerning the West Bank and Jordan Valley have provoked regional condemnation; commentators say formal or functional control of the valley would make a contiguous, viable Palestinian state far less feasible [4] [8].
7. Jordan’s stake and regional diplomacy
Jordan — which hosts millions of Palestinians and holds custodial roles tied to Jerusalem under the 1994 treaty — has publicly condemned displacement and annexation steps as threats to regional stability and its national security, reflecting Amman’s intense interest in any measures that displace Palestinians from the West Bank [9] [10].
8. Legal and human-rights framing: occupation and displacement claims
Amnesty, monitoring groups and legal commentators frame these measures as part of intensified policies since late 2022 that restrict Palestinian rights in Area C, with claims they breach international law and UN resolutions by altering the status and demographics of occupied territory [3] [6].
9. What remains unreported in the supplied sources
Available sources do not mention how many individual landowners have lodged successful legal appeals, the precise map coordinates of every affected parcel, or independent assessments of whether alternative security measures were considered; they also do not include an official Israeli government legal justification document in full (not found in current reporting).
10. Bottom line and competing narratives
On the ground, the physical barrier will create immediate loss of access to tens of thousands of dunams and, according to Palestinian activists and rights groups, accelerate dispossession [1] [2]. Israeli authorities call it a security necessity; critics see it as part of a systematic drive to consolidate territorial control in the Jordan Valley and limit prospects for Palestinian statehood — a debate that frames the current crisis and regional alarm [5] [4].