In 1967, just after the Israel Defense Forces soldiers captured the whole of the West Bank, Yigal Allon came to see the place. He was at the time a senior government minister, considered a serious candidate for prime minister. Allon went to Nablus and Hebron and didn't like what he saw: too many Arabs, they could become a demographic threat. But to the east, at the Jordan Valley, his eyes lit up - the Arab population there is thin on the ground, and the region seemed fit to be annexed, so as to expand the borders of Israel.
Allon's plan has never formally been approved by any government, but its implementation began vigorously, already in 1967. One by one model kibbutzim and moshavim were established (not settlements, God forbid, just enlightened communities of the progressive Israeli Labor movement.) There was only one remaining problem - the Arabs. True, their population was sparse and scattered all over the Jordan Valley, but still they are there. The ideal - a Jordan Valley completely free of Arabs - is still far from realization.
Allon passed away in 1980m and the then-dreamed of "Jordanian Option" vanished long since, but the "Allon Plan" is still alive and kicking. Allon's numerous disciples are to be found in the army and the Civil Administration , in the Israeli Lands Authority and various branches of the government. Day by day, until the present, they continue trying to dilute even further the sparse Arab population in the Jordan Valley.
The little village Al-Farsieyah - a hamlet in the North East Valley with a total of ten families - had never heard of Yigal Allon. But yesterday - the morning of Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - Allon's long arm came out of the grave. Israeli Defense Forces soldiers came to the village, decrees in hand which required all residents to evacuate their homes and land within twenty-four hours. Not out of racism, God forbid, but for the residents' own good. The army has declared the area of the village, its houses and fields, to be part of a Fire Zone. Live ammunition training will soon start there. Residents must not be stay in their homes and ,God forbid, get hurt.
So far, the residents did not yet leave Al-Farsieyah, although the evacuation order already came into effect.
'We have nowhere to go ", they said.
