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Palestinian Authority starts multi-million Jordan Valley fund days before Israel begins annexation

This file photo shows a Palestinian shepherd as he looks out over the historic Jordan Valley. (By AFP)

The Palestinian Authority has launched a multi-million fund to support inhabitants of the Jordan Valley, less than a week before the Israeli regime intends to implement its plan to annex the strategic Palestinian territory.

“The government has decided to establish projects to support the residents of the Jordan Valley,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, stressing that the scheme would be implemented within days and amounts to $10 million.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a number of criminal indictments, has time and again announced that he would begin cabinet-level discussions for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank on July 1, in accordance with US President Donald Trump's the so-called deal of the century.

Trump’s scheme, unveiled in January, largely gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital” and allowing the regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

In the wake of all these, President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, declared on May 19 the end of all agreements signed with Tel Aviv and Washington.

The American scheme further maintains that the future Palestinian state will consist of scattered lands linked together via bridges and tunnels. It will also be demilitarized, meaning it will be subject to Israeli control for security.

President Abbas has already said that the scheme “belongs to the dustbin of history.”

According to Shtayyeh, the fund will largely concentrate on agricultural improvements in the Jordan Valley, although it also covers education and health projects. 

The Palestinian Authority would “allocate land to all Palestinians who want to invest in the Jordan Valley,” he added on Wednesday.

In the fertile Jordan Valley, which makes up some 30 percent of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian residents outnumber Israeli settlers to a great extent. However, the Tel Aviv regime considers the region crucial to its security and has determined to annex it.

Back in March last year, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a report that Israel had occupied more than 85 percent or 27,000 square kilometers of historical territories of Palestine in an expropriation process.

According to the report, Palestinians now live on and own only 15 percent of their ancestral land.


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