In The Occupied Jordan Valley
Taha Numan , the mayor of Anata , knows that his village is a textbook , but a little known phenomenon : the colonization of the West Bank by agriculture. At least until the report just released by the Israeli expert Etkes . This former Israeli Peace Now movement took stock of agricultural activity in the West Bank from 1997 to 2012 from combing through satellite photos and field surveys , the 9300 hectares planted by Israel on land considered by the international community as Palestinian .
Its findings are new : the agricultural development is a much more effective tool colonization settlement activities and " outposts " ( small settlements ) , whose total surface is , by comparison, that 6000 ha . The reason Mr. Etkes Anata chose to illustrate the results of his research is given by Mr Numan : " In the 1970s , land dependent Anata represented 3,139 ha , now we still have 80 . " Meanwhile, no less than seven colonies settled around the resort, inexorably absorbing its farmland .
After the great " settlement bloc " of Maale Adumim to the east of Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea , take the 437 road and turn left to reach Anata . This is a desert area with here and there , the encampments of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe, trying to resist the will of the Israeli government to remove them.
