The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area covers 1.6 million dunams, representing 28.8 percent of the total area of the West Bank. Since 1967, Israel has seized control of 1.25 million dunams, constituting 77.5 percent of the land of the area, and has prevented Palestinians to build, stay in, or use these lands. In recent years, Israel has intensified its actions, expelling small Bedouin communities that have existed in the area for many years, some predating the occupation, by repeated demolition of the residents' structures. This control has cut the Palestinian spatial sphere and impaired the Palestinians' potential for developing their communities.

At the same time, Israel has established 37 settlements in the area, seven of them outposts. The first settlements were established in February 1968, six months after the occupation began. The municipal area allocated to them encompasses 12 percent of the area, which is 28 times larger than the built-up areas of the settlements.

Bedouin community in firing zone, near Route 578 (Derech Alon). Photo: Keren Manor / activestills.org, 8 Feb. '11

At the same time, Israel has established 37 settlements in the area, seven of them outposts. The first settlements were established in February 1968, six months after the occupation began. The municipal area allocated to them encompasses 12 percent of the area, which is 28 times larger than the built-up areas of the settlements.

Israel has used several methods to seize control of the land:

• Thousands of dunams were taken from Palestinian refugees and used to build the first settlements there, beginning in 1968 and extending throughout the 1970s. These settlements were built in violation of a military order.

• By tendentious interpretation of the Ottoman law, Israel enlarged the scope of "state land" in the area, such that 53.4 percent of the area, four times greater than pre-1967, is now deemed state land. In recent years, Israel has registered the shores of the Dead Sea as state land, and continued to allocate the declared state land to settlements, even though it made a commitment to cease doing so.
• Israel has established 11 military fire zones in the area, covering 45.7 percent of the area. Some are situated close to built-up areas in settlement, to farmland under cultivation, or to main traffic arteries, and some are already used by settlements for agricultural purposes. Israel did not reduce the size of these lands following the signing of the peace agreement with Jordan, although it evacuated army bases in the area. Also, Israel is evicting Palestinian communities situated on these lands. 
• Twenty-six sections of land, constituting 20 percent of the land, have been declared nature reserves, Two-thirds of the nature reserves have been turned into military firing zones, indicating that Israel does not give great ecological importance to the nature reserves, or that it intends to use the firing areas for military purposes. Israel prevents Palestinians from grazing their flocks on land inside the nature reserves.
• Israel has buried hundreds of thousands of landmines in 64 landmine fields near the West Bank of the Jordan River, east of Route 90. The army itself contends the landmines are no longer required for security purposes, and that it has refrained until recently from removing them due to the high cost of the operation.
• Israel has seized 2,500 dunams of land worked by Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley for its use in building the Separation Barrier. 

Size of area in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea that Palestinians are forbidden to use