THE DAY HUMANS WILL KILL EACH OTHER FOR WATER...

Water  in Palestine - a crime against humanity?

Ayman Rabi

[Reproduced from  (where the complete article can be read): http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2329259/water_apartheid_in_palestine_a_crime_against_humanity.html   22nd March 2014]

Farmer Fadel Jaber is arrested for 'stealing water' in the Palestinian village of Sussia, on South Mt. Hebron. Israel has constructed water pipes in the area, but they only serve the army and the settlers. The Palestinians are forced to drive to the closest town, and buy their water in tanks over there. Photo: noam / www.promisedlandblog.com

Systematic, acute, malicious discrimination in access to water in the West Bank and Gaza, 

combined with massive resource theft, is operated by the occupation authorities and the private water company Mekorot, writes Ayman Rabi on UN World Water Day.

Settlements benefit from Penough water to run farms and orchards, and for swimming pools and spas, while Palestinians often struggle to access the minimum water requirements.

Today is UN World Water Day - a day to remember the billion people who are unable to meet their needs for safe, clean water due to drought, poverty and official neglect.

But it's also a day to remember, and fight for, 2.1 million Palestinians who suffer something different - an artificial water scarcity deliberately created and sustained by Israel's military occupation, and the private Israeli water company Mekorot.

Increased international pressure brings hope that the tide may be finally turning for Palestinians striving for water justice in the West Bank and Gaza - in particular, recent investment and partnership decisons against Mekarot, which runs Israel's discriminatory water policy in the West Bank.

Waterless in Gaza and East Jerusalem

The situation in Gaza is especially dire. The tiny, densely populated territory relies entirely on its depleted, saltwater-contaminated and sewage-polluted aquifer, and the water it produces is unfit for consumption. Water has to be bought, expensively, in bottles or from mobile tanks.

Moreover restrictions on fuel imports mean that Gaza's single power station spends most of its time idle - and so long as it's not running water and sewage cannot be pumped. So the taps are dry, toilets are blocked, and sewage pollution gets worse.

Not that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have it a lot better. As reported on 17th March, the city suffered a long water cut beginning on 4th March leaving Ras Shehada, Ras Khamis, Dahyat A'salam and the Shuafat refugee camp - cut off from the rest of the city by the separation wall - with no running water.

The reason is simple - old and inadequate water infrastructure, which there are no plans to improve or renew.