وطن نيوز
Hassan Al-Taamari freed the small fish’s mouth from his fishing rod and threw it into a bucket of water, where it joined a group of five or six previously caught stingrays. “What can I do?” he said in an apologetic tone. He lives near here, in a neighborhood south of Bethlehem. Until October 7, 2023, he worked as a bus driver for a company in East Jerusalem, but he – like the rest of the Palestinians working in Israel – was prevented from entering and working there since the outbreak of the war. Since then, he has struggled to make ends meet, and is often unemployed, “like other young people here.” We arrived just before ten in the morning at the huge stone pond that attracts unemployed Palestinian fishing enthusiasts, even though it is almost empty of water. We entered Bethlehem from the southern entrance on the Hebron-Jerusalem Road, then turned right onto Birket Solomon Street. They are all ponds, and after less than a hundred meters lies the first of three ponds. It is relatively full of water. As for the second, where Al-Taamari casts his hook, it is, as we mentioned, almost empty. The third one was completely dry, without a drop of water in it. Surrounded by needle pines and cypress trees, one cannot help but be impressed by the magnificence of the water architecture that Herod built here during the Second Temple Period. A huge project to transport rain and spring water in the region, including a main canal and three storage basins built on a steep slope, one above the other. The street was named after the basins, although King Solomon had no connection to them, because they were built hundreds of years after his death. It is also known that King Solomon was a lover of water, and enjoyed swimming in springs and ponds. Hundreds of years after his death, Flavius Josephus wrote that King Solomon, according to legend, wandered in the area of Ain Itam (southeast of Jerusalem, the area where the ponds were built), in gardens, orchards and water, in an area rich in springs. Thus, biblical stories mixed with historical legends, and the name of this place was born. The Ottomans built a stone house next to the ponds, and installed engines and pumps in it. Later, the British added large boilers to purify the water to make it drinkable as well, and not just for agricultural purposes. After the British, the Jordanians came, then the Israelis replaced them, until maps were drawn in the 1990s, as part of the Oslo Accords, dividing the region, and it was decided that the Solomon Pools would be included in Area A, under the full responsibility of the Palestinian Authority. What about fish? We asked Al-Taamari: How did the fish get here? He replied, “Oh, they were brought a few years ago by men from East Jerusalem who like to come here to the ponds. They brought them from the Sea of Galilee. Don’t you know them? They are small fish, small fish. Most of them I put back in the water. Every now and then, I bring some home and put them in the aquarium in the living room.” Draft archaeological excavation order less than a year ago, the local council of “Efrat” began [مستوطنة] A popular campaign aimed at “correcting a historical distortion” and transferring the registration of ponds from Palestinian Area A to Area C, where Israel has full security responsibility and control. Efrat, from the hills on which it was built, dominates most of the area, and the homes of the “Givat Hadagan” neighborhood overlook it. [مستوطنة] Directly on the three ponds. A new, newly paved road descends from the settlement area towards the pools, and is surrounded by a yellow iron barrier, preventing entry into the town. Young Israelis began visiting the pools on Fridays, accompanied by large military forces, and in recent months, the site has also witnessed a procession of politicians visiting it on a tour with the head of the Efrat Council, Dobi Scheffler. Finance Minister Smotrich arrived accompanied by Minister Orit Struk, and Minister Elkin also received a visit. Deputy Secretary Sharan Haskell stood at the edge of the pool, pointed at the murky water, and shouted into the camera: “Due to a clerical error, one millimeter away, you are still in Zone A.” Knesset member Zvi Sukkot not only said that the place should be returned “to our hands,” but he also jumped into the water with his clothes on. Probably in the fuller upper pool. The campaign to redraw the map in the Solomon’s Pools area and transfer it from Palestinian Area A to Area C is part of the major move to cancel the Oslo Accords, which is led in the Knesset by the “Religious Zionist” and “Otzma Yehudit” factions. Most Israeli public opinion does not realize how much reality has changed throughout Judea and Samaria under the current government. The unprecedented scale of construction and the approval of more than a hundred new settlements, in addition to the dozens of farms and settlement outposts that dotted the hills in the region, the ongoing forced expulsion of dozens of pastoral communities, and the rebuilding of settlements evacuated in northern Samaria during the withdrawal process – all of which reshaped the West Bank. The Palestinian living space has shrunk, large parts of pastures and agricultural areas have been closed to Palestinian entry, and 925 barriers and dirt barriers at the entrances and exits of Palestinian villages and cities deprive residents of their livelihoods. All this pushes a large segment of the population into poverty and hunger. Hundreds of kilometers of new roads and tracks were conquered and paved, huge sums of money were invested in security, electrical and water infrastructure, and archeology was harnessed to consolidate and expand territorial control. The government allocated a quarter of a billion shekels to the Ministry of Heritage, headed by Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party, to restore and develop historical sites in the West Bank, while forcing Palestinians to leave those areas by confiscating private lands, building walls, and increasing the Israeli military presence. It is a presence that fuels conflicts and confirms to the Palestinians that they no longer have any presence there. Where do you want us to go? Last Friday afternoon, several military jeeps arrived at Solomon’s Pools, first blocking the road leading to the site from the main road. “We don’t have a sea, this is our sea,” says social activist Mahmoud Jabari, a resident of the village of Artas, located less than a kilometer from the ponds. People come to this place from all over the Bethlehem area, even from Jerusalem and its environs. I learned to swim in my first pool there when it was full of water. It is true that there is not much water in the pools, but this is what we have, this is our beach. People come to swim, and they even come with little rubber rafts to paddle around a bit. Since the Oslo Accords, only Palestinians have come to this place. Suddenly, in recent months, settlers, ministers and members of the Knesset began to arrive, and before they arrived, the army would come and remove the Palestinians from the place. Last Friday, the army came alone. They told people: “Anyone who enters the water or has a picnic here, we will arrest him.” Now you understand, this is Area A, which is entirely Palestinian. People did not come out of the water, so the soldiers started firing tear gas and stun grenades. The bombs they dropped here caused a fire in a thorny field, and we residents had to put it out. Where does Israel want us to go? As mentioned, this is not the story of Solomon’s ponds alone. At the archaeological site of Sebastia, north of Samaria, about 1,800 dunams, most of which were private lands owned by local Palestinian residents, were confiscated for the purpose of developing the site. The Heritage Ministry, headed by Minister Eliyahu, is investing NIS 32 million in developing and expanding the site, and part of this amount is allocated to building a fence to separate the site from the neighboring village of Sebastia, whose residents have depended on tourism for decades. Elsewhere, at an archaeological site near the village of Fasayel in the Jordan Valley, the Ministry of Heritage is investing three million shekels in the restoration of an ancient stone pool and the water channels leading to it. Minister Smotrich personally ordered the immediate transfer of funds. What concerns him is not the plight of the settlements on the northern border and their urgent rehabilitation, but rather the most important thing at the present time is the restoration of the stone pond in the village of Fasayel. The story involves new factions, as it began at the beginning of June, but it is an indication of the prevailing situation in the Palestinian territories. Initially, the settlers arrived at the site on their own initiative and began cleaning the area around the site and the stone pond. To fill the pond, they diverted water lines intended for farmers from the nearby Palestinian village of Fasil. After it was full, videos were posted on social media, and hundreds of bathers began arriving, especially on Fridays. Even MK Sukkot came to shower, accompanied by Minister Eliyahu. Here too, they were photographed jumping into the water with their clothes on. “The land is ours and ours alone. Get out of here!” The settlers were quick to name the site in factions “Herod’s Pools.” The site was cleaned and water was pumped into the ancient tank, in defiance of an employee of the Civil Administration’s Antiquities Department who tried to prevent work on the site. Of course, this did not prevent the filling of the pond, nor the support they received from the Minister of Heritage, nor the “immediate” transfer of the budget from the Minister of Finance. As in the area south of Bethlehem, the Fasayil area in the West Bank includes a water system established during the Herodian era, including water storage ponds. However, archaeologist Alon Arad, of the Emqashveh organization concerned with the place of archeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says that the pond that the settlers filled was most likely built at a later time. He explains: “There are pools in the area that were built in the period between the Iron Age, around 3000 BC, and the beginning of the Islamic era, in the seventh century AD. It is a very long period of time, and there is no precise date for it. The pool that the settlers filled was not excavated or studied systematically, so its attribution to Herod is completely wrong, and completely fabricated. The settlers want to call it ‘Herod’s Pool’ and not ‘Pool of Factions’, to give it a Jewish value.” “This place is Herod’s Second Temple, and Herod was a supporter of the Jews. Settlers attach Jewish value to archaeological sites to attract government investment, creating a tourist center in a place that helps expand influence in the region.” He adds: “There are about 6,000 archaeological sites in the West Bank, most of which are not linked to Jewish heritage. Our region has a history that extends one and a half million years of human existence, which means that many peoples, nations, groups, tribes and individuals have passed through it.” So, in light of this long history of human presence in the region, Jewish history represents only a small chapter. This government strives to create a Jewish narrative at archaeological sites, with the aim of blurring the boundaries between Areas B, A, and C. This government does not pay any attention to preserving monuments. Whoever wants to preserve antiquities will not fill Fasayil Pool with water before an archaeologist conducts a professional engineering study and evaluation to test the pool’s water resistance. There they did a completely different operation to divert the water. “The same thing is in Solomon’s Pools. There, the matter has become more than just interest in antiquities. There, Area A has become dominant. There, too, they are trying to create a Jewish narrative to control the region, a narrative that portrays the West Bank as having only a Jewish heritage. This narrative erases all non-Jewish history.” If it weren’t for the tragedy of it, it could be laughed at. We also heard about the distortion and obliteration of history from Sister Rosa at the Hortus Conclusus Monastery, which means “walled garden” in Latin. The monastery was built in the late nineteenth century on the outskirts of the village of Artas, not far from Solomon’s Pools. It is a majestic architectural building located in a picturesque area, and a magnificent stone bridge leading to it extends over a green valley. We arrived at the monastery after visiting the ponds. The monastery extends over an area of 260 dunums of land where olive and almond trees grow. Without going into details, we will suffice to point out that in recent years the entire region has become surrounded by farms and settlement outposts that are increasingly expanding at the expense of Palestinian lands. Sister Rosa says that she does not delve into politics and does not want to talk about it, but rather wants to share with us the truth about what is going on here. She adds: “They seized land that belonged to the church. They did not buy it.” We did not sell our land to anyone, but one day they seized it and surrounded it with a fence that prevented us from entering it. We went up to where the farm that had taken over our land was built. We went up with volunteers who come every year from the church in Italy to help us with the harvest, but armed men came and expelled us. They told us: “This is not your land, and it was never yours. This land is ours, it has always been ours, God gave it to us.” The volunteers told them that we Christians live here too, and we have land here. They answered them: “No, the land is ours alone. Get out of here.” This is a false claim, as history cannot be changed or reversed. Oded Shalom Yedioth Ahronoth 7/3/2026
