Fields Run Dry as Herod Is Revived: West Bank Water Falls Into Settlers’ Hands
Natural springs and ancient pools in the occupied West Bank have long provided respite from the stifling summer heat. They have also served as a lifeline for Palestinian communities that depend on them for tourism and the irrigation of agricultural land.
For the 2.8 million Palestinians living in the territory, however, those springs and naturally fed stone reservoirs are becoming increasingly inaccessible. Backed by a hard-line government facing new elections, Israeli settlers are intensifying efforts to take control of springs and other heritage sites.
In one case this summer, water from a natural spring supplying the Palestinian village of Fasayil was illegally diverted to a nearby ancient pool. Those responsible used the water to fill the pool and promoted it as a new tourist destination named “Herod”, after the Roman-appointed king of Judea, according to the Associated Press.
Agreements reached in the 1990s indicate that the pool lies in Area C, which is under full Israeli military control. Research conducted by Dror Etkes, who heads the settlement-monitoring organisation Kerem Navot, found that the land is privately owned.
Saad Nimer, a Palestinian farmer from Fasayil, said the loss of water had severely damaged his farmland. He added that his family possessed documents proving its ownership of the property.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli military body responsible for overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank, acknowledged that the water had been diverted “without authorisation” and said it would investigate the matter.
Other swimming areas across the West Bank have also become flashpoints. Last week, an Israeli father of six was shot dead by a Palestinian near a spring in the northern West Bank while bathing with his eldest son ahead of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Israel Funds Jewish Heritage Projects in the West Bank
Israel has occupied the West Bank since capturing it in 1967, together with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Since then, it has established a network of settlements housing more than half a million Israelis on land that Palestinians seek for a future independent state.
The international community overwhelmingly regards the settlements as illegal. Earlier this month, amid escalating settler violence and other measures that have displaced Palestinians, the British government accused Israel of “turning a blind eye” to what it described as “the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of the West Bank, carried out by terrorist settlers”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence but attributed it to “a handful of rioters” in the occupied West Bank, saying they were damaging the reputation of “the law-abiding settler community”.
Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem said the drive to seize heritage sites and grant them official status formed part of this broader effort. In a report released this month, it said such designations were being used “to strengthen the historical, cultural and religious ties of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to the West Bank”.
Alon Arad, executive director of the Israeli organisation Emek Shaveh, which opposes the politicisation of archaeology in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the settlers’ decision to name the pool near Fasayil “Herod” was an attempt to “place the site within the framework of Jewish history”.
Archaeologists have never previously studied the site, leaving the date of its construction unclear. Excavations conducted by the Israeli Civil Administration’s archaeology unit — part of the military body that manages day-to-day affairs in the West Bank — have found that other ruins in the area date to Herod’s rule in the first century BC.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said the pool would be drained in early October, after the Jewish holidays, to allow the administration’s archaeologists to conduct a comprehensive survey of the site.
Eliyahu praised the group that originally diverted the water and said the government had allocated about $1 million to rehabilitate the site. The funding forms part of at least $166 million currently earmarked, according to the minister, for excavations and infrastructure at more than 100 sites he described as connected to Jewish heritage in the West Bank.
During a visit to the pool near the settlement of Petza’el, Eliyahu said: “We will turn this place into the Garden of Eden.” Before jumping into the water, he added: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Fields Run Dry as Water Is Seized
The struggle over access to water in this fertile region reflects the broader competition for control of the West Bank, particularly the Jordan Valley. Palestinians regard the valley as the agricultural breadbasket of their future state, while Israelis consider it essential to protecting their eastern border.
Palestinians have faced water shortages and restrictions on access since Israel took control of the territory in 1967. Interim peace agreements signed in the 1990s recognised Palestinian water rights but maintained a system that allocated about 80 per cent of the water extracted from the main aquifer for Israeli use.
Escalating settler attacks are now worsening the problem. According to a report issued in July by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, settlers damaged, destroyed or seized around 160 water and sanitation facilities in Palestinian communities during 2026, including pipelines and water tanks.
The report said attackers were increasingly targeting shared water infrastructure, disrupting supplies to several Palestinian communities or large sections of them.
In the Al-Auja area of the Jordan Valley, settlers’ takeover of local natural springs has forced some Palestinian farmers to abandon their land.
Murad Al-Jabaa, 53, once grew abundant quantities of fruit and vegetables, including melons, aubergines, bananas and tomatoes. He said he could no longer cultivate his land after settlers moved into the area, harassed residents and diverted the spring water.
“All these farms depend on the spring, but today there is no spring because the settlers have taken it over,” Al-Jabaa said.
Mayor Hani Al-Najoum said settlers had recently “seized complete control” of the spring-fed waterfall and transformed “the area into something resembling a military zone”. He added that this had caused serious damage to local tourism and agriculture.
“This land was once highly productive. Today, it has become a desert,” Al-Jabaa said.
