Israel is threatening to take control of Solomon’s Pools, a set of ancient reservoirs near Bethlehem that have become a rare place for Palestinian families to swim, picnic and escape the heat, The Guardian reported.
The site, near the villages of Artas and al-Khader in the occupied West Bank, dates back as far as the second century BCE. The reservoirs were later expanded under Roman and Ottoman rule and once formed part of a water system feeding Jerusalem.
The immediate pressure began after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the area in May with Israeli politician Zvi Sukkot. Smotrich said Palestinian control of the site was among the “terrible mistakes” of the Oslo Accords and declared: “This is our land.”
Under the second Oslo Accord of 1995, Solomon’s Pools was placed in Area A, where the Palestinian Authority has civil and police control. Local Palestinians say the site has become more important as Bethlehem is hemmed in by Israeli settlements.
Mahmoud Jaber, a local activist and horticulturist from Artas, said the pools are now “the only place” in Bethlehem where people can sit near water, shade and green space. “And now they are trying to steal it,” he said.
The pressure has not been limited to rhetoric. Israeli soldiers carried out a raid on July 10, firing teargas while children were swimming, according to the account from the site.
Israeli archaeologist Alon Arad, executive director of Emek Shaveh, said the issue was being used to weaken the Oslo framework. “This site is being weaponised in order to erode and basically cancel the Oslo agreement,” he said.
Eman al-Titi, Bethlehem’s tourism and antiquities chief, warned against turning ancient places into political tools. “Archaeological sites should never become instruments of political conflict,” she said.
