In pictures: A popular Palestinian movement to protect Suleiman’s ponds from Judaization | policy

Bethlehem – At the edge of one of the three ancient pools that make up the “Solomon’s Pools” south of the city of Bethlehem, in the south of the West Bank, the young man Qusay Fararja stands in a swimsuit, ready to jump into the waters that have recently been transformed from just a destination for family recreation, into a space to prove the Palestinian right to the place.

“Solomon’s Pools are ancient Palestinian history, and we come here to revive the place, to swim in it, and to prevent the settlers from controlling it,” Fararja says before rushing into the water.

Engineering and history

The Solomon Pools have an engineering and historical past as one of the most important historical water sources in the region, especially as they supplied water to Jerusalem through the Sabil Canal, but they have become governed by geopolitical tension and Palestinian fears of Israeli plans to control the site.

On May 25, the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the storming of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich Barak Suleiman and his threat to annex it to Israel, stressing that it is “purely Islamic endowments, historically and legally registered with the Ministry of Endowments.”

A natural outlet

Close to the water’s edge sits Khaled Issa (54 years old), one of the site’s neighbors who has witnessed its transformation over the past decades. For Issa, the water complex represents not just a historical and archaeological landmark, but rather an integral part of Bethlehem’s history and its Arab and Islamic heritage.

He recalls the days when the pools received visitors from various Palestinian regions, including families from the Gaza Strip who would come there on Fridays before heading to perform prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The presence of young people in the place goes beyond the entertainment dimension, as it combines use as a natural outlet, with frequent attendance linked to the nature of the political situation in the region.

In this regard, the young man, Amir Alaeddin (28 years old), recalls his childhood among the site’s springs and its historical walls, noting that he used to frequent the ponds since his early years. He says that the Palestinian presence in the place – currently – is linked to the intensification of the settlers’ presence in the region during the recent period.

As for the young man, Muhammad Issa, he believes that Solomon’s Pools have become the only park for the people of the region, wondering, “Where can people go? We have become attached to this place and have become accustomed to it since our childhood, and it is very difficult for a person to do without something that he has saturated with since childhood.”

Real danger

What enhances the vitality of this spontaneous movement is that the flock to Solomon’s Pools is no longer limited to residents of the towns of Bethlehem or neighbors of the archaeological site, but rather has turned into a destination for people of other governorates.

For his part, Samer Shaheen, deputy head of the Artas Village Council where the Solomon Pools are located, warned in his interview with Al Jazeera that there is an Israeli decision to control all archaeological sites, as well as water sources in the West Bank, which puts the “Solomon Pools” in the eye of the storm.

He added that Al-Barak has been registered as an Islamic endowment since the Ottoman era, and that official documents from the Ministry of Endowments prove its ownership.

General information

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism, the water system was established on the upper side of Wadi Artas, where the ponds are located, during the Roman period in 37 BC until 325 AD with the construction of two ponds, and this system developed in the Islamic periods with the construction of the third large pond during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan King Al-Zahir Khushkadam in 1460.

The system that fed the city of Jerusalem, 20 kilometers north, from the early Roman period until the Mandatory period, constitutes a unique system of its kind, given the long distance over which the water traveled, whether entering or leaving the ponds, towards Jerusalem, where the distance reached about 44 kilometers.

The Solomon Pools consist of three huge, graduated pools, each about six meters higher than the other. Their length ranges between 118 and 179 metres, and their depth ranges between 8 and 23 metres, with a total capacity of more than 250,000 cubic meters of water.