[Opinion. Couldn’t bomb ‘em out. Couldn’t starve ‘em out. Killing their kids didn’t work. Aha, let’s cut off their water! How about cutting off the water for the colonies instead? Bring back waterboarding!] Israel threatens to seize ancient water reservoirs near Bethlehem Solomon’s Pools date back to the second century BCE, and have become a source of recreation for nearby Bethlehem Julian Borger and Quique Kierszenbaum in Artas, West Bank The Guardian: 19 Jul 2026 SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/19/israel-threatens-to-seize-ancient-water-reservoirs-near-bethlehem Israel is threatening to seize ancient water reservoirs near Bethlehem, in what would be a significant escalation in an intensifying campaign for control of West Bank land and the Middle East’s historical narrative. Since Israel’s extremist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, made an explicit threat in May to “erase” the agreements that confirmed Palestinian ownership of Solomon’s Pools more than 30 years ago, Israeli settlers and troops have stepped up their presence around the spectacular site. The pools date back as far as the second century BCE, though the main construction was carried out by the Romans a century later as part of a vast engineering project of two reservoirs, aqueducts and tunnels to supply water to Jerusalem 8 miles (13km) away. A third monumental basin was added under Ottoman rule, when a fort was also built to safeguard the water supply. During the Mandate period from 1923 to 1948, the British authorities modernised the system with metal pipes and pumps. The pale stone Mandate-era pumping station now stands abandoned in the wooded hills of the area and the pools, more than 10 metres deep in places, no longer funnel water to Jerusalem, but have become the main source of recreation in the area. On a recent afternoon, children from the neighbouring villages of Artas and al-Khader took running jumps off the stone walls of the middle pool into the deep green water, while a handful of men fished amid the reeds off the ramparts on the other side. Palestinian ownership of the pools was agreed under the second Oslo Accord of 1995.
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