What is ‘Herod’s Pool’ and why is Israel developing it in the West Bank?
Al Jazeera writes in 5 October 2026:
Israel says that work has begun on a development project around an outdoor pool in the occupied West Bank filled after settlers illegally diverted water from a Palestinian village over the summer. Instead of restoring the water to the village of Fasayil, near Jericho, Israeli authorities are working to formalise what has now been termed “Herod’s Pool”, named after an ancient Jewish king.
On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right settler, announced that “development and preservation” of Herod’s Pool had commenced, connecting it to a larger project to “strengthen [Israel’s] hold” on and preserve historical sites. “The Settlement Revolution continues!” he declared in a social media post that carried an image of workers and wheelbarrows near the site. The announcement follows Smotrich’s June pledge of more than three million shekels (almost $1m) to develop the site, even though the pool sits on privately-owned Palestinian land belonging to a farmer.
The illegal diversion of water to the pool is part of Israel’s monopolisation of water resources in the occupied West Bank’s fertile Jordan Valley. It also marks the latest Israeli seizure of Palestinian land in the name of archaeological heritage.
Here’s what we know about the Herod’s Pool project.
Herod’s Pool is the name Israeli settlers have given an ancient reservoir that lies in the Palestinian village of Fasayil. It is named after Herod the Great, a Jewish king from the first century BC. The reservoir sits next to a natural spring.
Although settlers claim it once belonged to King Herod, archaeologists have not established when the pool was built. Alon Arad, executive director of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO that defends cultural heritage rights and monitors the political use of archaeology, told the Reuters news agency that the pool’s origins are unclear. “We see in many cases the use of archaeology … to create this feeling that the West Bank is exclusively Jewish,” he said.