BETHLEHEM, February 28, 2017 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government held its weekly meeting on Tuesday at Solomon’s Pools in Bethlehem, instead of Ramallah, following attempts by Jewish settlers to take it over, according to the cabinet statement issued at the conclusion of its meeting.

It said Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told the meeting that it was decided to hold this session at the Pools “in response to rise in attempts by settlers to break into it under the protection of Israeli occupation soldiers.”

Hamdallah stressed that the Pools, ancient water reservoirs located south of Bethlehem, is an Islamic waqf (trust) and considered as an archeological reserve since 1929. He said this area was neglected during the Israeli occupation until it came under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 when the Palestinian private sector restored the pools and developed the area near it where a convention center and a shopping area was built.

“Efforts should be exerted to protect this area from the rabid settlement drive it is facing and attempts by the Israelis to turn it into a Jewish site after obliterating its Arab Islamic and Christian history,” said the prime minister.

The cabinet reviewed the settlement drive around Bethlehem where 21 illegal settlements were built since its occupation in 1967 housing more than 100,000 settlers, in addition to 21 settlement outposts deemed illegal by Israeli standards built between 1996 and 2005.

Following Israeli expropriation of thousands of square meters of the area around Bethlehem for settlements and the separation wall, only 13 per cent of the overall area was left for the Palestinians.

As part of efforts to take over Solomon’s Pools, the Israeli military government cut off water from the pools leaving them dry and ruined, the cabinet was told.

The government decided to form a committee with the private sector to look into ways to preserve and develop this historical site and to protect it.

M.K.