Israel Water Strategy

Recently, I referred to Israel ruthless policy of controlling water from Jordan and the West Bank, and manipulating southern Lebanon and Syrian natural water supplies.

This post consists mainly of quotations reflecting Israel water strategy, and supporting my earlier post on the same topic.

Amnesty International Human Rights issued a report (BBC news, 10/27/09) stating that "Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, and it must ends its discriminatory policies, immediately, lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water."

The report consists of 112 pages, the followings are the highlight points:

1 - "Israel has "entirely appropriated the Palestinians' share of the Jordan river and uses 80% of a key shared aquifer."
2 - "West Bank Palestinians are not allowed to drill wells without Israeli permits, which are 'often impossible' to obtain."
3 - Rainwater harvesting cisterns are 'often destroyed by the Israeli army'."
4 - "Israel soldiers confiscated a water tanker from villagers who were trying to remain in land Israel had declared a 'closed military area'."
5 - An unnamed Israeli soldier says rooftop Palestinian household water tanks are 'good for target practice'."
6 -Much of the land cut off by the West Bank barrier is land with good access to a major aquifer."
7 - Israeli military operations have damaged Palestinian water infrastructure, including $6 m. worth during the Cast Lead operation in Gaza last winter."
8 - The Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza has exacerbated what was already dire situation by denying many building materials needed for water and sewage projects."

The report, however, also criticizes the Palestinian water authorities for bad management.

There is no doubt that the Israeli government policy is a strategy to make life unbearable for the Palestinians. It is a policy reflecting the Israeli intention of ethnic cleansing.

Furthermore, Amnesty International maintains that "on average Palestinians daily water consumption reaches 70 litres a day , compared with 300 litres for the Israelis." Actually, "some Palestinians barely get 20 litres of water a day - the minimum recommended even in humanitarian emergencies."

I would like to add that are many Israeli human right organizations that have condemned Israel's policy towards the Palestinians. Such views are also shared , world wide, by people concerned with basic human right needs.