PA Helpless to Combat Expansion By Israel in Jordan Valley

Linah Alsaafin

May 13, 2013

Prefabricated houses are seen in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maskiot in this May 18, 2009 file photo. Perched on a grassy slope on the western Jordan Valley, Maskiot overlooks Jordan from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians who oppose the presence of settlers who have spread among them over the past 30 years. Picture taken May 18, 2009. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/Files (WEST BANK POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTXRN8Q — Prefabricated houses are seen in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maskiot in this May 18, 2009, file photo. — REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Comprising 30% of the West Bank, the Jordan Valley has long been the target of demolitions, settlement and forced displacement in what seems to be a successful effort by the Israeli government to change the geographical political map of the territory. Before the 1967 war, the valley belonged to the governorates of five cities in the West Bank: Toubas, Nablus, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron.

Abdelrahim Bishara is a 58-year-old man living in a Palestinian community in the Jordan Valley called Al Hadidiya. His property has been demolished seven times, with the first demolition in the freezing winter of January 2001.