Israel Spends $1M to Formalize 'Herod's Pool' in West Bank

Israel has started construction work on a reservoir called "Herod's Pool" in the occupied West Bank, three months after settlers diverted water from the nearby Palestinian village of Fasayil, according to Al Jazeera, Oct. 5, 2026. The figures and dates below come from that reporting.

What is Herod's Pool and where is it?

The pool is an ancient reservoir fed by a natural spring in Fasayil, a Palestinian village near Jericho in the Jordan Valley, per Al Jazeera's Oct. 5, 2026 reporting. Settlers named it after Herod the Great, a Jewish king who ruled in the first century BC — a date range of roughly 2,000 years. Al Jazeera reports that archaeologists have not established when the pool was actually built, despite the royal branding.

How much is Israel spending on the project?

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pledged more than 3 million shekels — almost $1 million — to develop the site in June 2026, according to Al Jazeera's Oct. 5, 2026 account. On Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, Smotrich announced that "development and preservation" work had begun, posting an image of workers and wheelbarrows at the site and calling it part of a broader "Settlement Revolution," Al Jazeera reports.

How did the pool get its water?

Settlers illegally diverted water from Fasayil over the summer of 2026, filling the reservoir rather than returning the flow to the village, per Al Jazeera. The pool sits on privately owned Palestinian land belonging to a farmer, the outlet reports — meaning the formalization project is proceeding on land Israel does not own, three months after the diversion began.

What do critics say about the archaeology claim?

Alon Arad, executive director of the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, which tracks the political use of archaeology, told Reuters — as cited by Al Jazeera — that the pool's origins remain unclear despite the Herod branding.

"We see in many cases the use of archaeology … to create this feeling that the West Bank is exclusively Jewish."

Is this part of a larger pattern?

Herod's Pool is one of at least two water-heritage sites drawing Israeli political attention this year, per Al Jazeera's reporting. The outlet also cites Israeli efforts to assert greater control over "Solomon's Pools," a set of three ancient reservoirs in the Bethlehem governorate that Palestinians have used for generations. Al Jazeera frames both cases as part of a wider pattern: Israeli monopolization of water resources in the Jordan Valley combined with land claims framed as archaeological preservation.

Timeline

• Summer 2026: Settlers divert water from Fasayil village into the reservoir, per Al Jazeera.
• June 2026: Smotrich pledges more than 3 million shekels (nearly $1 million) for the site's development, Al Jazeera reports.
• Oct. 4, 2026 (Sunday): Smotrich announces construction has begun, calling it part of the "Settlement Revolution."
• Oct. 5, 2026: Al Jazeera publishes its explainer detailing the project and the disputed land ownership.

No timeline for completion of the reservoir project, or for resolution of the water dispute with Fasayil, has been reported.