The life in the town of Furush Beit Dajan which is located in the central Jordan Valley and northeast of Nablus has been fading gradually for many decades as a result of its exposure to negligence by the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s repressive and expulsive practices.
Recent heavy rains in the occupied Palestinian territories exposed extremely poor infrastructure and public services in Furush Beit Dajan especially with regard to its streets electricity grid and health service.
Chief of the town Tawfiq al-Hajj Mohamed voiced concern over the diminishing number of the residents due to Israel’s demolition and land grab policies in particular.
“There could be years to come when this community no longer exists. It had a population of 7000 people in 1966 and now there are only 1200 people. They were supposed to be more than 20000” al-Hajj Mohamed stated.
He accused the Israeli occupation state of forcing the residents to leave their homes and lands through demolishing and appropriating their property and annexing water resources to settlements in the Jordan Valley.
83 percent of land (about 10000 dunums) in Furush Beit Dajan town were seized by Israel while the residents live now on 3000 dunums of land encircled by three settlements the town chief said.
He also accused the PA of neglecting the town and making it administratively linked to different provinces.
For his part Azem al-Hajj Mohamed coordinator of agricultural relief committees in the town and the Jordan Valley said that the PA had reneged on its pledges to support the steadfastness of the local residents several times including a promise to compensate farmers for the losses they incurred as a result of frost waves and floods in recent years.
He also said that the PA health ministry had closed the town’s clinic at the pretext that there were no enough patients visiting it although the facility was built by the residents.
