Netanyahu speeds up construction of wall along Jordan Valley border

Israeli newspaper Maariv has revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to order the construction of a wall along the border of the Jordan Valley, similar to the apartheid wall between the West Bank and Israel. The construction of the Jordan Valley wall will begin after the construction of the wall and fence along the Egyptian-Israeli border has been completed. The plan includes accelerating the establishment of a similar wall in the occupied Golan Heights.

Maariv noted that the Israeli government’s departments have started conducting initial examinations to develop engineering plans for the construction. It said that the aim of accelerating the construction of the wall was to stop the flow of Syrian refugees into Israel, amid the influx of about 700,000 Syrian refugees into Jordan. The wall will also serve to close the Israeli border.

“Netanyahu considers the wall to be a message to the Palestinian side, which opposes the presence of Israel on the banks of the Jordan River,” Maariv said, adding that Israel intends to protect its eastern border in the Jordan Valley and is not ready to evacuate the area in the context of any future agreement.

The Israeli website criticised Netanyahu over statements he had made during a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee two years ago about the danger of infiltration from the Jordan Valley into the West Bank. In 2011 Netanyahu said, “We must maintain the Israeli presence in the [Jordan] Valley, on the Egyptian border and along the Jordanian border. The government is examining the possibility of constructing a fence.”