Israel Pours Cement On Palestinian Wells In West Bank

Fact-checking site Snopes has confirmed the veracity of a video circulated online this month showing Israelis filling a well dug by Palestinians in the West Bank to irrigate their farms with concrete, Taija PerryCook reported.

The wells are used by Palestinians in the West Bank to irrigate their farms. I Photo: Anera

A Palestinian news outlet, Quds News Network, first posted the footage in July 2023. In March 2024, social media users shared a video supposedly showing Israelis filling a water well used by Palestinians with concrete.

When destroying property or infrastructure, Israeli officials often claim the sites pose a military or security threat or do not have the necessary permits.

The Associated Press (AP) said Israel's complex system for granting permits for new construction is a way to prevent "Palestinians' attempts to live a semblance of a normal life."

Israel claims it owns all groundwater sources in the West Bank.

The system, mainly run by a military administration known by its acronym COGAT, has swelled into a sprawling bureaucracy with intricate categories and arcane rules, often opaque and confusing.

Access to water across Israel and the West Bank varies by location.

One story by Aljazeera, published about a month after the concrete-pouring video first surfaced online, said Israeli settlements in the West Bank flourished with greenery and children splashed in community pools, while Palestinian communities accessed "barely get enough water to bathe their children and wash their clothes – let alone sustain livestock and grow fruit trees."

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