Israel is threatening to seize ancient water reservoirs near Bethlehem, in a major escalation of its increasingly intense campaign to control land in the West Bank and the historical narrative of the Middle East, the British newspaper The Guardian reported today.
Since Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly threatened in May to "erase" agreements that confirmed Palestinian ownership of the Solomon Basin more than 30 years ago, Israeli settlers and soldiers have increased their presence around the impressive site, the Guardian reports in an article on its portal.
The pools date back to the second century BC, although the main construction work was carried out by the Romans a century later, as part of a major engineering project that included two reservoirs, aqueducts and tunnels to supply water to Jerusalem, 13 kilometers away.
A third monumental pool was added during Ottoman rule, when a fortress was built to protect the water supply. During the British Mandate, from 1923 to 1948, the British authorities modernized the system by installing metal pipes and pumps.
The bright stone pumping station from the British Mandate period now stands abandoned in the wooded hills of the area, and the pools, which are more than ten meters deep in some places, no longer direct water towards Jerusalem, but have become the main place for recreation in the area.
On a recent afternoon, children from the nearby villages of Artas and Al-Qader were running and jumping from the stone walls of the middle pool into the deep green water, while several men fished among the reeds from the ramparts on the other side, according to the Guardian.
On Fridays and holidays, families come from Bethlehem, 3,5 kilometers northeast, to spend the evening, swim, and go on excursions. As the city is increasingly surrounded by new settlements, the pools are becoming an increasingly important haven for Bethlehem residents.
"It's now the only place in all of Bethlehem where you can sit and enjoy the water, the shade and the greenery - and now they're trying to steal it," said Mahmoud Jaber, a local activist and horticulturist from Artas, who uses water from nearby springs to grow vegetables.
Although part of the Efrat settlement rises above the pool, they only came under immediate threat in May, when Smotrich and another far-right Israeli politician, Zvi Sukkot, with the help of police, removed Palestinians from the area so they could be filmed swimming in the middle pool.
"This is our land," Smotrich declared, and Sukkot reiterated his call for Israel to take over the site. Since then, settler incursions have become more frequent, and on July 10, Israeli soldiers carried out an unprecedented raid, firing tear gas as children swam in pools.
The pressure campaign has sparked outrage in Palestine, not least because of the archaeological significance of the three rectangular pools, which with a combined capacity of 250.000 cubic metres represent one of the largest preserved water supply systems from the ancient world. The campaign also represents a new direct attack on the Palestinian Authority, writes the Guardian.
Under the second Oslo Accords of 1995, the Solomon Basin became part of the wider Bethlehem area classified as Area A, under Palestinian civilian and police control. The division of the West Bank into Areas A, B—under Palestinian civilian and Israeli military control—and C, under full Israeli administration, was intended as a transitional phase towards the eventual withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territory and the creation of a Palestinian state.
That goal was long abandoned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, who have accelerated the expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an attempt to prevent the creation of an independent Palestine.
During that multi-year campaign, Area A was largely considered untouchable, until the Israeli security cabinet issued a decision in February of this year confirming Israeli control over the historic site of Rachel’s Tomb inside Bethlehem. The takeover of Solomon’s Pools would set a further precedent, suggesting that parts of Area A could be appropriated at will, based on individual ministerial decisions.
When he visited the pools in May, Smotrich said that leaving this "magnificent ancient water site" under Palestinian control was "one of the terrible mistakes" of the Oslo Accords.
"We are working hard to repair the terrible damage caused by the disaster of the Oslo Accords," he said.
"This site is being used as a weapon to undermine and practically nullify the Oslo Accords," said Alon Arad, an Israeli archaeologist and executive director of Emek Shave, an organization founded to protect ancient sites.
He added: "There are 6.000 ancient sites in the West Bank, and only a small fraction of them have any connection to Jewish heritage."
It is unclear if and when the Israeli coalition will attempt to retake the Solomon Pools, but archaeologists and local Palestinians expect more incursions as Israeli elections approach in October. Meanwhile, hardline Israeli propagandists have already laid out a justification for taking over the site, arguing that the Palestinian Authority has allowed the Solomon Pools to deteriorate. The site is crumbling in places, and discarded plastic bottles and other trash could be seen in one corner of the central pool.
The Palestinian Waqf, a religious foundation that owns the site, had plans to develop it for tourism purposes, but those ambitions were thwarted when Smotrič denied the Palestinian Authority tax and excise revenues, leaving it without funds.
Another argument put forward in support of the Israeli takeover is that Solomon's Pools is an exclusively Jewish site. Writing earlier this month on the website of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, retired Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Hirsch stated that the site "is of Jewish historical significance and importance by its very name."
However, the name Solomon's Pools is historically incorrect. King Solomon, if he even existed, which is a matter of debate, is believed to have ruled Israel and Judea for around 800 years before construction of the reservoir began, according to the Guardian.
The first two pools were built during the time of the second Jewish king, Herod the Great, a Roman vassal ruler, but, like many ancient sites in Israel and Palestine, Solomon's Pools bear the layered traces of successive eras and empires.
Local Palestinians retained the name over the centuries, but Iman al-Titi, director of Bethlehem's Department of Tourism and Antiquities, said it later came to refer to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who rebuilt Jerusalem's walls and water system in the 16th century.
"Archaeological sites should never become tools of political conflict. This issue goes beyond control of the land. It also includes attempts to reshape history and impose a historical narrative that does not reflect the archaeological evidence or the numerous civilizations that have contributed to Palestine's rich cultural heritage over thousands of years," al-Titi said.
DON'T MISS IT
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
