Sunday, January 14th 2007

      According to the head of Al 'Aqaba council, these pools and cisterns are being built with direct support from the Norwegian Government on a land that is owned by residents of the community, and therefore, there is no clear reason for them why the Israeli Army ordered them to stop their work. The community has a total of around 60 cisterns used for collection of rainfall during the winter season and are considered a major source of water for these households specially that the community has no water network. On the other hand, the agricultural pools are very important for the community since agriculture and livestock are considered major source of income for the community specially during the current Intifada.

      The Israeli forces and since the start of occupation has been harassing residents of the community in order to force them leave or ignore their lands in the community for political and military reasons; they declared the community and all land related to it as closed military reserved and established three military bases for their training. Residents of the community and after several years of suffering and fighting in the court, forced the Israeli military to remove one of these bases in June 2003. The removed military base was prohibiting residents of the community from moving freely and reaching needed services in the nearby communities, this is in addition to causing the destruction of agricultural land by their bulldozers, burning agricultural products, land leveling of agricultural land, destruction of the households, water networks, telephone networks and electricity networks. Al 'Aqaba community is very close to the northern part of Al Ghor area that are facing all Israeli procedures aiming to completely control and confiscate the whole Ghor area.