Amnesty: Israel Withholds Water From Palestinians

JERUSALEM — Amnesty International is accusing Israel of pumping disproportionate amounts of drinking water from an aquifer it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their fair share.

The London-based human rights group also said in a report released Tuesday, that Israel has blocked infrastructure projects that would improve existing water supplies to Palestinians – both in the West Bank and those living in the Gaza Strip.

"This scarcity has affected every walk of life for Palestinians," Amnesty's researcher on Israel, Donatella Rovera, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, ahead of the report's release. "A greater amount of water has to be granted to them."

Israeli officials deny the accusations.

Water is a major point of contention between Israelis and Palestinians and is considered an issue that must be resolved before the two sides could make peace.

The issue is further compounded by the split in Palestinian territories, with the moderate Fatah movement governing the West Bank, while the militant Hamas rules the coastal Gaza Strip.

Israelis use more than four times the amount of water per person on average than do Palestinians, whose consumption falls far below the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organization, the report said.

The report especially focuses on the so-called Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank. It says that Israel uses more than 80 percent of water drawn from the aquifer and while the Jewish state has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank's sole supply of water.

As a result, the 450,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinian residents, Amnesty said. Israel captured both areas from Jordan in the 1967 war. The Palestinians claim them as part of a future state.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev called Amnesty's claims "completely ludicrous," and said Israel holds the legal right to the aquifer since it was the first to discover, develop and pump from it.

Regev said Israel pumps less water from the Mountain Aquifer today than it did in 1967, and Palestinian consumption of fresh water has actually tripled in that time.

He blamed the Palestinians for not investing in development in the West Bank and said they have failed even to drill wells that have already been approved.

Amnesty charged that Israel routinely denies Palestinians permits to launch desperately needed water sanitation and infrastructure projects in the West Bank.

Shaul Arlosoroff, a leading Israeli authority on water acquisition and use, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank are meant to protect an already taxed aquifer from overpumping.

In the report, Amnesty also cited serious problems with water supply to the Gaza Strip.

Since Hamas seized control of the coastal territory in 2007, Gaza's long-standing problems with sewage and water sanitation facilities have deteriorated, Rovera said. During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage.

Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a "crisis point," with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

An Israeli blockade of Gaza has halted any repairs to the strip's overburdened sewage and water networks, preventing materials and equipment to repair the infrastructure from getting in, Rovera said.

Comments

[juicyju]

09:12 PM on 11/30/2009

In case you all didn't realize, 'Mein Kampf' and 'The Protocols of The Elders of Zion' are both best -sellers in Arab countries. I'm dismayed so many Americans buy into it too. Taliban=bad, bad, Al Queda=Evil, Hamas= poor, poor freedom fighters. What a crock.

[StCuthbert]

04:32 PM on 10/30/2009

More of those Palestinians who are denied water:

http://www.camera.org/images_user/ap.funland%20ramallah.jpg (Ramallah)
http://www.camera.org/images_user/reuters.jenin%20pool.jpg (Jenin)
http://www.camera.org/images_user/ap.ramallah%20pool.jpg (Ramallah)
http://www.camera.org/images_user/nablus%20pool.jpg (Nablus)
http://www.camera.org/images_user/reuters.jericho%20pool.jpg (Jericho)

Note the Reuters watermark on all the pictures before you attack the source.

[Garioch]

07:34 PM on 10/30/2009

You'll be one of those rocket scientists in waiting who point out that global warming can't be correct as there's just been a snowstorm in Utah won't you?

[Sentientbeing09]

11:05 AM on 10/31/2009

Camera.

Seriously.

You post a series of random, undated anonymous photos from a known propaganda actvist site and claim it bolsters your point?

[lightningbolt]

03:10 PM on 10/29/2009

The Arabs cannot claim any part of Israel as their land, and they cannot claim any of Israel's water as theirs. The Arabs stole that land and water during the Caliphate's violent rampage. They also stole most of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and Southern Europe. Anyone who claims the Arabs own that land is simply ignorant of history and ignorant to the fact that the Jews have been living there for thousands of years before the Arab culture even existed.

[Garioch]

07:35 PM on 10/30/2009

They are Palestinians. They've been there for the same amount of time as the Israelis and come from the same common ancestor.

[jwcmass]

09:55 PM on 10/31/2009

lighteningbolt,

History is irrelevant here. I've heard so many historical based arguments about why one group should have all the land (and water) and they are so much irrelevant rubbish.

The FACT is that both Israelis and Palestinians live in the land of Israel/Palestine.

THe FACT is that NEITHER people is just going to disappear. Deal with it.

So, the ONLY option, short of endless war, is that the TWO peoples are going to have to learn how to SHARE the land AND water justly and equitably.

It doesn't matter, in the end, whether its in one state or two. That is reaally up to the Israelis, as they have all the power.

And in case you aren't paying attention, the current government of Israel is sending that country down the path to the one-state solution.

Sorry to disappoint you by pointing out FACTS. But there isn't any way of getting around them.

[lightningbolt]

03:05 PM on 10/29/2009

Amnesty International is lying. It is Hamas who is blocking projects from being implemented. The city of Ashkelon is trying to partner with the city of Gaza to build a sewage system and Hamas won't allow the mayor of Gaza to leave Gaza to talk about this project. Hamas is actively oppressing Gazans in order to make Israel look bad. Until this criminal organization is removed from power, Gazans should not expect any improvement in their lives.

[omobob]

10:36 AM on 10/29/2009

"We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return." – David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948. The writing was on the wall in 48. Ben Gurion knew then what is only whispered behind closed doors of the IDF. One Jewish State.

[juicyju]

03:29 PM on 11/29/2009

this quote is dead wrong, and is Arab propaganda.

[ray01]

09:08 PM on 10/28/2009

Be on the lookout for another Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon, the purpose of which would be to extract water from the Litani river. This happened between the 1982 -2000.

[bermanator]

01:25 AM on 10/31/2009

No Ray, it didn't happen between 1982-2000, or ever. You already know that, because we've had this exact exchange before.

"In recent years, there have been unsubstantiated claims that Israel has been withdrawing water from the Litani River. The best evidence indicates that there have been no Israeli withdrawals of water from the Litani River to date, or even construction of infrastructure to facilitate such withdrawal. If anything, southern Lebanon recieves small quantities of water (about 0.6 Mm^3/year) from wells within Israel. Occasional articles in the Arab press, and some in the United States, claiming that Israel is withdrawing water from the Litani, appear to be in error."

-- from Watershed: The Role of Fresh Water in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Stephen Colnon Lonergan.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PPCzQ3O3Yx0C&dq=watershed+palestinian&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s

http://books.google.com/books?id=cpZ2q6e5hJUC&dq=israel+litani+river&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKL_EpnSp8

[ray01]

05:16 AM on 10/31/2009

Bermanator
It has been a while since we have communicated. In response:

'' Exceeding 140 km in length, the Litani River is the longest river in Lebanon and provides an average annual flow estimated at 920 million cubic meters.[1] The waters of the Litani both originate and flow entirely within the borders of Lebanon. It provides a major source for water supply, irrigation and hydroelectricity both within Southern Lebanon, and the country as a whole.

Most of its catchment area, however, was under Israeli control during 1978 and from 1982 to 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litani_River

[bermanator]

11:58 AM on 10/31/2009

Ray, I know where the Litani River is, and yes, it was under Israeli control until 2000.

[alexa07]

11:38 AM on 10/28/2009

"I know of one farmer whose land is near to a settlement that is expanding all the time and he has not been allowed to store water. Obviously this affects his crops and I guess the objective is to make him give up and leave his land to the settlers."

The Israeli authorities (& their American friends) are still operating under the delusion that if they can impose yet more impediments, obstacles, difficulties, the Palestinian families will fade away & the greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates will come into being. Their main problem, of course, is that the Palestinians themselves will not cooperative with this delusional thinking. A secondary problem is that now more than ever the whole world is watching, evaluating, speaking out with the Palestinian people against the policies of the Israeli govt. as well as the various covers provided by the American leadership in the US Congress & media as well as the Obama adm. It is getting ever so more uncomfortable & embarrassing to justify theft of water, land rights, settler rampages, uprooting of trees & gardens, killing of domestic animals, demolition of homes, foisting of bypass structures on the landscape in Palestine. Not much of an endorsement for American integrity & high ideals.

[Thabit]

03:24 PM on 10/28/2009

Cosigned

[yankees]

10:18 AM on 10/28/2009

I guess Israel got the water and the Arabs got the oil. People in the West Bank need to live with their decision in electing Hamas or get rid of them. Where is the accountability? Maybe if Hamas didn't send rockets into Israel then there would have been no defensive response and henceforth no damage to the water system.

[Gracie fr]

12:58 PM on 10/28/2009

Ramallah has been the defacto West Bank capital since 1995 and the center of Fatah activity. So I wonder what the meager West Bank vote for Hamas, has ever had to do with inadequate and unfair water distribution...?

[PWM]

06:12 PM on 10/28/2009

To deny anyone water is wrong.

[SolarArray]

02:11 AM on 10/28/2009

Israeli thugs at it again.

[MotherMiasia]

12:37 AM on 10/28/2009

This breaks my heart. Palestine means "the land between the seas" (Jordan, Mediterranean, Galilee, Red Seas) and these people have always had water up until they were usurped and suppressed and eventually destroyed.

[fbr79]

11:33 PM on 10/27/2009

Yawn, always the same people making the same comments. There is only two ways to achieve peace: one of the sides detroys the other or both sides agree to peace. The people around the world sitting on the bleachers and throwing mud on both sides as if it was a spectator sport make me sick. These are the proponents of the first outcome, cheerleading for one side to come on top of the other. Have fun with your current cause celebre.

[duxguts]

11:03 PM on 10/27/2009

Disgusting. While Israelis are watering their lawns and splashing in their swimming pools, the Palestinians go thirsty. I watched an Israeli spokesperson on television blaming it on the Palestinians. How low can Israel go?

[KIVPossum]

07:31 AM on 10/28/2009

Israel will go as low as the US lets them. Evidently we are willing to let them wallow in the sewer rather than offend their lobby or risk losing the voting block behind them.

[PWM]

06:13 PM on 10/28/2009

Interesting point.

[CigarGod]

10:38 AM on 10/28/2009

The more successful one is at demonizing one side, they lower one can go...with the permission of their supporters and apparently, the world.

[stardust835]

10:27 PM on 10/27/2009

From the article:

"As a result, the 450,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinian residents, Amnesty said."

It's the occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza that are the cause of the strife and the suffering.

We know what happened in Gaza last winter. To understand the magnitude of destruction. If the same percentage of the American population died in two months as died in Gaza, we would have lost 264,771 lives. That would be the population of Lincoln NE, Greensboro NC or Jersey City, NJ. Then imagine after losing those people that those states were put under siege.

At some point, we Americans, who subsidize the Israeli siege & occupation with our tax dollars, our elected officials who provide Israel with political cover and our military industries that profit from arms sales to Israel must do the right thing and stop our support for the siege and occupation. A house resolution (HR 867) is being debated to pressure the State Dept. & Executive to veto further discussion of the Goldstone Report at the UN. Burying reports will not change what has happened. We must support human rights, especially among our "allies".

In the last few weeks Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Intl, Reporters without Borders have criticized Israel for massacre called Cast Lead and loss of freedom of the press.

[MarcusT]

10:02 PM on 10/27/2009

If the American public begins to look behind the water curtain there no amount of Israeli propaganda is going to keep them going.

[shafff]

08:23 PM on 10/27/2009

It is sicking that world leaders are powerless, a people that have nothing monitory to offer back, have no rights