A new Israeli wall could sever the West Bank’s Jordan Valley
Tawfiq Bani Odeh, a resident of the Palestinian village of Atuf, with his flock of sheep on Mount Tammun in the northern Jordan Valley, 23 January 2026
Jessica Buxbaum writes in The New Arab on 1 April 2026:
In the Jordan Valley village of Atouf, Palestinian farmers are hauling ladders, fences, and other agricultural equipment into their pick-up truck – preparing to leave their lands.
“I invested NIS 150,000 [$48,800] in planting these peas, and I still didn’t have the time to pick them all before they dried up,” Yahya Bisharat said on 28 March 2026, when The New Arab visited Atouf, located just south of Tubas in the occupied West Bank.
In what’s known as Palestine’s ‘bread basket’, the Jordan Valley is rich in water resources and fertile soil. Nestled between jagged mountain peaks and rolling green hills, farmers in the Jordan Valley grow a range of vegetables and fruits, like tomatoes, grapes, bananas, and olives.
In the village of Tammun, for example, 90% of residents make a living off the area’s agriculture, according to the municipality. But in the fields of Atouf, there’s nothing but crushed, yellow leaves lying limp in red dirt – the result of soldier and settler destruction of the farmers’ water infrastructure.
On 4 March 2026, the Israeli military began excavating the lands of Atouf in order to construct a 22-kilometre-long and 50-meter-wide fence and accompanying road that will slice through the village – running from the Tayyasir military checkpoint in Tubas at the edge of the Jordan Valley to the Nablus village of Ein Shibli.
To erect its new barrier, the Israeli army is destroying everything in the route’s path, including water pipelines belonging to Atouf farmers.