14 aug 2016
The Palestinian natives of Salfit launched a cry for help over a sharp water crisis inflicted by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA).
A water crisis has rocked Salfit after the IOA cut water supplies to the city, inflicting remarkable damage on Palestinian fauna and flora in the area.
Drought has overwhelmed Palestinian villages while dehydration rocked children’s bodies as the Israeli Mekorot company left one water line only in service.
The situation has gone far worse after Israeli settlers residing in the illegal Ariel settlement prevented Palestinian locals from their water wells in northern Salfit. Researcher Khaled Maali said Israeli water cuts aim at marring Palestinians’ life in the area as part of a larger scheme of ethnic cleansing.
According to Maali, such measures represent a barefaced contravention to international and humanitarian laws, which outlaw harassment and pressure on occupied peoples.
He warned of the serious upshots of Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion in Salfit on civilians, livestock, crops, and historical sites. “My children have not taken showers for months,” said a native woman.
“My little kids spend sleepless nights because of the insects caused by the horrible smells engulfing the room from all corners,” said another young lady as she raised alarm bells over the poor hygiene caused by the water crisis.
“My five-year-old grandson has been diagnosed with dehydration. His health status is taking a turn for the worse due to the water shortage,” an elderly civilian also stated.
A water crisis has rocked Salfit after the IOA cut water supplies to the city, inflicting remarkable damage on Palestinian fauna and flora in the area.
Drought has overwhelmed Palestinian villages while dehydration rocked children’s bodies as the Israeli Mekorot company left one water line only in service.
The situation has gone far worse after Israeli settlers residing in the illegal Ariel settlement prevented Palestinian locals from their water wells in northern Salfit. Researcher Khaled Maali said Israeli water cuts aim at marring Palestinians’ life in the area as part of a larger scheme of ethnic cleansing.
According to Maali, such measures represent a barefaced contravention to international and humanitarian laws, which outlaw harassment and pressure on occupied peoples.
He warned of the serious upshots of Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion in Salfit on civilians, livestock, crops, and historical sites. “My children have not taken showers for months,” said a native woman.
“My little kids spend sleepless nights because of the insects caused by the horrible smells engulfing the room from all corners,” said another young lady as she raised alarm bells over the poor hygiene caused by the water crisis.
“My five-year-old grandson has been diagnosed with dehydration. His health status is taking a turn for the worse due to the water shortage,” an elderly civilian also stated.
8 aug 2016
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) early Monday morning knocked down agricultural and residential structures in Nablus and the northern Jordan Valley.
A PIC journalist quoted the Head of the Jeftlek village council, to the east of Nablus, Othman al-Anouz as stating that Israeli army bulldozers rolled into the area at the crack of dawn and demolished two barracks for raising livestock along with a civilian home.
The IOF further demolished a cattle farm in Sebastia town, to the north, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
The IOF soldiers also stormed Aqraba town, in southeastern Nablus, and wreaked havoc on civilian homes. At the same time, the occupation troops destroyed an eleven-kilometer-long water line used by over 250 Palestinians in the Yizra nomadic area in the northern Jordan Valley, to the east of Tubas city, under the pretext that it was installed over the Israeli-controlled Area C.
Palestinian natives of Yizra have often launched a cry for help over the forced deportation policies and tactics of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Israeli occupation authorities in the area. Local activist Mukhlis Masa’id told the PIC that water sources in the area have been the permanent target of Israeli aggressions in an attempt to mar life for the native Bedouin communities.
A PIC journalist quoted the Head of the Jeftlek village council, to the east of Nablus, Othman al-Anouz as stating that Israeli army bulldozers rolled into the area at the crack of dawn and demolished two barracks for raising livestock along with a civilian home.
The IOF further demolished a cattle farm in Sebastia town, to the north, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
The IOF soldiers also stormed Aqraba town, in southeastern Nablus, and wreaked havoc on civilian homes. At the same time, the occupation troops destroyed an eleven-kilometer-long water line used by over 250 Palestinians in the Yizra nomadic area in the northern Jordan Valley, to the east of Tubas city, under the pretext that it was installed over the Israeli-controlled Area C.
Palestinian natives of Yizra have often launched a cry for help over the forced deportation policies and tactics of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Israeli occupation authorities in the area. Local activist Mukhlis Masa’id told the PIC that water sources in the area have been the permanent target of Israeli aggressions in an attempt to mar life for the native Bedouin communities.
7 aug 2016
As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the same time, the energy shortage caused by the blockade prevents engines and water pumps from pushing it from wells and tanks to houses and farming fields.
The Beach Camp is one of the more densely populated areas of Gaza and therefore one of the most affected by water scarcity. In addition, because of its location, directly on the seafront, its aquifers are some of the most affected by the infiltration of seawater and wastewater.
ISM collected several testimonies of people affected by this problem in order to discuss them with engineer Monther Shoblak, General Director of the Palestinian National Authority Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU).
The first testimony is that of Azzam Miflah El Sheikh Khalil, who says “the water comes only once every three days, and just for a few hours, which is not enough [to fill the tanks]. People can’t imagine how we are suffering because of the lack of water. In addition, there is no difference between the water from our wells and the sea water…
The main problem is that when there is electricity there’s no running water and when there is running water there’s no electricity . The only solution we have is to buy a generator to produce electricity when there’s water, but who can buy it if there is no work?”
In the next block lives the Mokhtar Kamal Abu Riela, who stressed the same problem: “When there’s water there’s no electricity, and vice versa. Maybe once every four or five days we have water and electricity at the same time for a few hours. Every day we buy gasoline to run the generator the hours when there’s running water, but the economic situation of the people is very precarious and not everyone can spend 20 NIS a day on gas just to have water in the tanks. We spend more on gasoline than in electricity or water itself”.
We asked the Mokhtar if he remembers when that problem began: “Ten years ago or so, with the blockade”.Finally, Im Majed Miqdad explained the difficulties she and her large family are faced with in their day to day life due to water scarcity: “There [are] people who build underground tanks [as those can be filled without bombs] or who buy a generator operated with gasoline.
But not everyone can afford these things. I’m one of those people who can not pay NIS 20-30 a day in gasoline to run the generator. Today, for example, in my home and in the homes of my four sons and their families we don’t have a drop of water, the four tanks are empty. We are waiting until running water and electricity will coincide in order to fill them. The situation is very hard, we have no water, we have no electricity, we have no work … If water and electricity would coincide at least three hours a day it would be enough to fill the tanks enough to spend the day.
People must understand that when there is no water you can not use the bathroom, you can not take a shower, you can not clean the dishes, the house, the clothes … And here the families have five, six, ten members … we are not just two or three people in each house”.
Given the frequent complaints of the population, the first thing that engineer Monther Shoblak wants to explain is that the failures in the water supply are due to the power cuts and therefore they can’t control them: “It is impossible for us to match the running water with the electricity, as to carry water from one area to the other, motors and pumps are needed and those can’t operate without electricity. We can’t control it because we don’t know which bomb will fail and when”.
However, he explains, the water problem in the Gaza Strip is more serious than that: “Indeed there is an over-exploitation of the aquifer in the Gaza Strip. This is because the coastal aquifer, which runs from Sinai to Yaffa and that is the only source of water available today in the Gaza Strip, has been nurtured historically by rainwater and by the water from the mountains of Al Khalil (Hebron) and the Naqab.
However, for decades our neighbors [the Zionists] have been building dams that prevent the water from following its natural course to Gaza, leaving rainwater as the sole source of the coastal aquifer. These dams are illegal, since they involve a violation of the conventional agreements on transboundary water sources. “Because of these illegal policies practiced by the Zionist entity, “the production capacity of Gaza’s aquifer has dropped to 55 million cubic meters a year. While the water demand of the Strip is 200 million cubic meters a year”.
This overexploitation is decreasing, to an alarming point, the level of the aquifer, causing seawater to seep and fill that vacuum, mixing with the fresh water and contaminating the aquifer. Additionally, to this chloride contamination caused by seawater seeping into the aquifer, the water is contaminated by nitrates from leaking sewage and fertilizers: “These are more dangerous than chlorides, as they can’t be detected by smell or taste”.
The successive attacks on the Gaza Strip have severely affected the sewage systems and destroyed thousands of septic tanks, causing in many cases wastewater to end up in the aquifer.
In addition, due to the lack of resources of local authorities, only 72% of Gaza is equipped with sewage systems. The rest depends on septic tanks built without supervision: “The occupation never provided the necessary services, such as mandated by international law. They didn’t build enough plants for wastewater treatment in order to protect the environment. If we look at the objective data it seems that their intention was just the opposite.
These plants shouldn’t be built in sandy areas, to avoid leaks, and should have an exit to the sea to prevent overflow in case of emergency. However, they built the main one in Beit Lahia, the sandiest area in Gaza and without exit to the sea. So when there is an overflow, which is quite common, wastewater inevitably ends up in the aquifer and contaminating farmlands in the area”.
At the same time, several cases of viral meningitis arose all along the Gaza Strip, some of which were mortal. This seems to be caused by wastewater contamination. This situation has forced the local authorities to close many swimming pools and advice the people not to swim in the sea, during the next weeks.
The Beach Camp is one of the more densely populated areas of Gaza and therefore one of the most affected by water scarcity. In addition, because of its location, directly on the seafront, its aquifers are some of the most affected by the infiltration of seawater and wastewater.
ISM collected several testimonies of people affected by this problem in order to discuss them with engineer Monther Shoblak, General Director of the Palestinian National Authority Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU).
The first testimony is that of Azzam Miflah El Sheikh Khalil, who says “the water comes only once every three days, and just for a few hours, which is not enough [to fill the tanks]. People can’t imagine how we are suffering because of the lack of water. In addition, there is no difference between the water from our wells and the sea water…
The main problem is that when there is electricity there’s no running water and when there is running water there’s no electricity . The only solution we have is to buy a generator to produce electricity when there’s water, but who can buy it if there is no work?”
In the next block lives the Mokhtar Kamal Abu Riela, who stressed the same problem: “When there’s water there’s no electricity, and vice versa. Maybe once every four or five days we have water and electricity at the same time for a few hours. Every day we buy gasoline to run the generator the hours when there’s running water, but the economic situation of the people is very precarious and not everyone can spend 20 NIS a day on gas just to have water in the tanks. We spend more on gasoline than in electricity or water itself”.
We asked the Mokhtar if he remembers when that problem began: “Ten years ago or so, with the blockade”.Finally, Im Majed Miqdad explained the difficulties she and her large family are faced with in their day to day life due to water scarcity: “There [are] people who build underground tanks [as those can be filled without bombs] or who buy a generator operated with gasoline.
But not everyone can afford these things. I’m one of those people who can not pay NIS 20-30 a day in gasoline to run the generator. Today, for example, in my home and in the homes of my four sons and their families we don’t have a drop of water, the four tanks are empty. We are waiting until running water and electricity will coincide in order to fill them. The situation is very hard, we have no water, we have no electricity, we have no work … If water and electricity would coincide at least three hours a day it would be enough to fill the tanks enough to spend the day.
People must understand that when there is no water you can not use the bathroom, you can not take a shower, you can not clean the dishes, the house, the clothes … And here the families have five, six, ten members … we are not just two or three people in each house”.
Given the frequent complaints of the population, the first thing that engineer Monther Shoblak wants to explain is that the failures in the water supply are due to the power cuts and therefore they can’t control them: “It is impossible for us to match the running water with the electricity, as to carry water from one area to the other, motors and pumps are needed and those can’t operate without electricity. We can’t control it because we don’t know which bomb will fail and when”.
However, he explains, the water problem in the Gaza Strip is more serious than that: “Indeed there is an over-exploitation of the aquifer in the Gaza Strip. This is because the coastal aquifer, which runs from Sinai to Yaffa and that is the only source of water available today in the Gaza Strip, has been nurtured historically by rainwater and by the water from the mountains of Al Khalil (Hebron) and the Naqab.
However, for decades our neighbors [the Zionists] have been building dams that prevent the water from following its natural course to Gaza, leaving rainwater as the sole source of the coastal aquifer. These dams are illegal, since they involve a violation of the conventional agreements on transboundary water sources. “Because of these illegal policies practiced by the Zionist entity, “the production capacity of Gaza’s aquifer has dropped to 55 million cubic meters a year. While the water demand of the Strip is 200 million cubic meters a year”.
This overexploitation is decreasing, to an alarming point, the level of the aquifer, causing seawater to seep and fill that vacuum, mixing with the fresh water and contaminating the aquifer. Additionally, to this chloride contamination caused by seawater seeping into the aquifer, the water is contaminated by nitrates from leaking sewage and fertilizers: “These are more dangerous than chlorides, as they can’t be detected by smell or taste”.
The successive attacks on the Gaza Strip have severely affected the sewage systems and destroyed thousands of septic tanks, causing in many cases wastewater to end up in the aquifer.
In addition, due to the lack of resources of local authorities, only 72% of Gaza is equipped with sewage systems. The rest depends on septic tanks built without supervision: “The occupation never provided the necessary services, such as mandated by international law. They didn’t build enough plants for wastewater treatment in order to protect the environment. If we look at the objective data it seems that their intention was just the opposite.
These plants shouldn’t be built in sandy areas, to avoid leaks, and should have an exit to the sea to prevent overflow in case of emergency. However, they built the main one in Beit Lahia, the sandiest area in Gaza and without exit to the sea. So when there is an overflow, which is quite common, wastewater inevitably ends up in the aquifer and contaminating farmlands in the area”.
At the same time, several cases of viral meningitis arose all along the Gaza Strip, some of which were mortal. This seems to be caused by wastewater contamination. This situation has forced the local authorities to close many swimming pools and advice the people not to swim in the sea, during the next weeks.
2 aug 2016
The Israeli occupation army on Monday evening notified Palestinian citizens of its intents to demolish seven agricultural structures and water wells in Qusra village, southeast of Nablus city.
According to specialist in settlement affairs Ghassan Daglas, the structures and wells are located in the eastern area of the village and near the Esh Kodesh settler outpost.
The Israeli army claimed these structures and wells had been built without permits.
These intended demolitions are part of Israel's systematic ethnic cleansing policy against the Palestinians, which target their existence on their land.
According to specialist in settlement affairs Ghassan Daglas, the structures and wells are located in the eastern area of the village and near the Esh Kodesh settler outpost.
The Israeli army claimed these structures and wells had been built without permits.
These intended demolitions are part of Israel's systematic ethnic cleansing policy against the Palestinians, which target their existence on their land.
1 aug 2016
Palestinians collect water from a spring, in the West Bank village of Salfit on 27 June. Villagers had been without water for days as chronic supply shortages induced by Israeli occupation authorities continue to hit many parts of the territory.
Water shortages are not new for Palestinians. Whether in the occupied Gaza Strip or the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the supply of water flowing into Palestinian homes is strictly capped or obstructed by Israel.
As temperatures climb during the summer, taps run dry. Clemens Messerschmid, a German hydrologist who has worked with Palestinians on their water supply for two decades, calls the situation “hydro-apartheid.”
This year, Israeli journalist Amira Hass published data proving that the Israeli Water Authority had reduced the amount of water delivered to West Bank villages.
In some places, the supply was slashed by half. Her records contradict official denials that water supplies to Palestinian cities and villages are cut during the summer, even though that too is not new.
Cities and small villages have gone as long as 40 days without running water this summer, forcing those who can afford it to haul in water tanks.
When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 it also seized control over the West Bank Mountain Aquifer, the territory’s principal natural water reserve.
The Oslo accords of the early 1990s gave Israel 80 percent of the aquifer’s reserves. Palestinians were supposed to get the remaining 20 percent, but in recent years they have been able to access only 14 percent as a result of Israeli restrictions on their drilling.
To fulfill the population’s minimum needs, the Palestinian Authority is forced to buy the rest of the water from Israel. But even then, it’s not enough.
Israel is only willing to sell a limited amount of water to Palestinians. As a consequence, Palestinians use far less water than Israelis, and a full third less than the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 100 liters per person per day for domestic use, hospitals, schools and other institutions.
The Electronic Intifada spoke with Clemens Messerschmid, who has been working in the water sector throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1997, about the engineered water scarcity for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Charlotte Silver: Is scarcity of water in the area driving the water crisis in the West Bank? Or is the scarcity engineered?
Clemens Messerschmid: Of course there is no water scarcity in the West Bank. What we suffer from is induced scarcity – it’s called the occupation.
This is the regime imposed on Palestinians immediately after the war in June 1967.
Israel rules through military orders, which have the direct and intended result of keeping Palestinians short on water. It is not an ongoing gradual dispossession as with land and settlements, but was done in one sweep by Military Order No. 92, in August 1967.
The West Bank possesses ample groundwater. There is high rainfall in Salfit, in the northern West Bank, now known for especially hard water cuts.
The West Bank is blessed with a treasure of groundwater. But this is also its curse, because Israel targeted this immediately after taking control.
What we need is simple: groundwater wells to access this treasure. But Israel’s Military Order No. 158 strictly forbids drilling or any other water works, including springs, pipes, networks, pumping stations, irrigation pools, water reservoirs, simple rainwater harvesting cisterns, which collect the rain falling on one’s roof.
Everything is forbidden or rather not “permitted” by the Civil Administration, Israel’s occupation regime. Even repair and maintenance of wells requires military permits. And we simply don’t get them.
It is a simple case of hydro-apartheid – far beyond any regime in history that I am aware of.
CS: Israel has increased the amount of water it sells Palestinians, but it is still not enough to prevent villages from running dry. Putting aside the fact that Israel’s control over the aquifer’s resources is very problematic, why won’t Israel sell the Palestinians enough water?
CM: Israel first of all has drastically reduced the amount of water available to Palestinians. It has prevented all access to the Jordan River, which is now literally pumped dry at Lake Tiberias.
Then, Israel imposes a quota on the number of wells and routinely denies permits for much-needed repair of old wells from the Jordanian days – Jordan administered the West Bank from 1948 until the Israeli occupation – especially agricultural wells. That means the number of wells is constantly shrinking. We have fewer than in 1967.
Now, the only thing that has increased is the dependency on buying water from the expropriators, Israel and Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.
This is reported over and over in the western press, because it is the point Israel stresses: ‘See how benevolent we are?’
So, yes, since Oslo, purchases from Mekorot have grown steadily. Ramallah now receives 100 percent of its water from Mekorot. Not a drop comes from a single well field we have.
The supply of villages by Israel was not done as a favor. It was initiated in 1980 by Ariel Sharon, then agriculture minister, when rapid settlement growth was starting. The water supply was “integrated,” in order to make the occupation irreversible.
What is important here is the structural apartheid, cemented and cast in iron in these pipes. A small settlement is supplied via large transmission pipes from which smaller pipes split off to go towards Palestinian areas.
Israel is very happy with Oslo, because now Palestinians are “responsible” for supply. Responsible but without a shred of sovereignty over resources.
The current so-called water crisis is not a crisis at all. A crisis is a sudden change, a new turn or a turning point in development. The undersupply of Palestinians is desired, planned and carefully executed. The “summer water crisis” is the most reliable feature of the Palestinian water calendar. And the amount of annual rain, or drought, has no bearing whatsoever on the occurrence and scale of that “crisis.”
I should stress that however routinely this occurs, in each and every single case, it is a conscious decision by some bureaucrat or office in Israel or the Civil Administration. Someone has to go to the field and turn down the valve at the split off to the Palestinian village. This, like every summer, was done in early June. Hence – water crisis in the West Bank.
CS: What factors may be contributing to the worsening water cuts this year?
CM: It seems settler demand rose drastically since last year. The Israeli Water Authority found 20 to 40 percent higher demand, which is quite remarkable.
Alexander Kushnir, the Water Authority’s director general, attributes this to expansion of settler irrigation in the mountains of the northern West Bank settlements, around Salfit and Nablus.
CS: How is it that people in present-day Israel are reportedly enjoying a surplus of water since the country has started using desalination, while the people under occupation in the West Bank are left with so little? Even Israeli settlers have reportedly experienced water cuts.
CM: It’s true that Israel declared for the first time a few years ago that it had a surplus water economy and is keen to sell more water to its neighbors, from whom it expropriated water in the first place.
Palestinians are already buying water Israel stole, but as noted, not reliably or at sufficient rates.
Frankly, I don’t know. Why this special, elevated and aggravated desire of Israel not even to sell enough water to the West Bank?
In some areas, water is actively used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing, like in the Jordan Valley. Agriculture was always targeted from day one of the occupation.
But this logic does not apply to the densely populated Palestinian towns and cities in so-called Area A of the West Bank, that are still struggling. After 20 years, this still leaves me puzzled.
Another element is important to understand: Israel needs to constantly teach Palestinians a lesson. Any water procurement, any drop delivered should be understood as a generous favor, as an act of mercy, not as a right.
Israel has augmented water sales to the West Bank from 25 million cubic meters per year in 1995 to around 60 mcm/year now. Why does it not sell much more? It certainly could afford it waterwise – it has a gigantic surplus.
One of the material issues I can detect is the issue of price, and therefore meaning of water.
Israel wants to eventually get the highest price for desalinated water it sells to Palestinians. While we are only speaking about a few hundred million shekels a year [a few tens of millions of dollars] – which is not a lot for Israel – Israel wants to end the debate once and for all over Palestinian water rights.
Israel demands nothing short of a full surrender: Palestinians should agree that the water under their feet does not belong to them, but forever to the occupier.
By demanding full prices for desalinated water, Palestinians would admit and agree to a new formula.
A word on the Gaza Strip – unlike the West Bank, Gaza has no physical possibility of access to water. The confined and densely populated Strip can never supply itself. Yet, Gaza does not get such water deliveries from Israel. Only recently did Israel start selling to Gaza the five million cubic meters per year agreed in Oslo. A tiny cosmetic increase has been enacted.
In a way you could interpret this differential treatment between Gaza and the West Bank as an Israeli admission of a certain degree of hydrological dependence.
Israel receives the bulk of its water from the territories conquered in 1967, including Syria’s Golan Heights, but not a drop from Gaza.
Waterwise, Gaza has no resource to offer Israel. This is the same as with the main resource: land. Hence a very different approach to Gaza right from the start in 1967. Israel does not depend on Gaza in any material form. Ever since Oslo, Israel has demanded Gaza supply itself by its own means, such as through seawater desalination.
CS: How have donor countries acted in all this? Have they defended global minimal water standards or have they affirmed and bolstered Israel’s control over the water resources in the occupied West Bank?
CM: Unfortunately the latter. When Oslo started, we all were under the illusion that a phase of development would start. Wells that were forbidden to be drilled for 28 years would finally be put in place.
Soon, we learned that Israel in fact was never willing to give “permits … for expanding agriculture or industry, which may compete with the State of Israel,” as then-defense minister Yitzhak Rabin said in 1986.
What was needed then and now – and everybody knew it – was political pressure to extract the minimum well-drilling permits guaranteed under Palestinian-Israeli accords. This pressure never came. Never did the EU or my German government issue even a public statement in which it “deplores” or “regrets” the obstructions in the water sector. This is a true scandal.
But even worse, what was our Western answer to this? All donor-funded projects actually abandoned the vital branch of well drilling. The last German funded well was drilled in 1999.
As for the current so-called water crisis, we as donors are now busy generously funding anachronistic water tankering in the cut-off Palestinian towns and cities – adapting to and stabilizing the status quo of occupation and water apartheid.
Water shortages are not new for Palestinians. Whether in the occupied Gaza Strip or the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the supply of water flowing into Palestinian homes is strictly capped or obstructed by Israel.
As temperatures climb during the summer, taps run dry. Clemens Messerschmid, a German hydrologist who has worked with Palestinians on their water supply for two decades, calls the situation “hydro-apartheid.”
This year, Israeli journalist Amira Hass published data proving that the Israeli Water Authority had reduced the amount of water delivered to West Bank villages.
In some places, the supply was slashed by half. Her records contradict official denials that water supplies to Palestinian cities and villages are cut during the summer, even though that too is not new.
Cities and small villages have gone as long as 40 days without running water this summer, forcing those who can afford it to haul in water tanks.
When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 it also seized control over the West Bank Mountain Aquifer, the territory’s principal natural water reserve.
The Oslo accords of the early 1990s gave Israel 80 percent of the aquifer’s reserves. Palestinians were supposed to get the remaining 20 percent, but in recent years they have been able to access only 14 percent as a result of Israeli restrictions on their drilling.
To fulfill the population’s minimum needs, the Palestinian Authority is forced to buy the rest of the water from Israel. But even then, it’s not enough.
Israel is only willing to sell a limited amount of water to Palestinians. As a consequence, Palestinians use far less water than Israelis, and a full third less than the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 100 liters per person per day for domestic use, hospitals, schools and other institutions.
The Electronic Intifada spoke with Clemens Messerschmid, who has been working in the water sector throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1997, about the engineered water scarcity for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Charlotte Silver: Is scarcity of water in the area driving the water crisis in the West Bank? Or is the scarcity engineered?
Clemens Messerschmid: Of course there is no water scarcity in the West Bank. What we suffer from is induced scarcity – it’s called the occupation.
This is the regime imposed on Palestinians immediately after the war in June 1967.
Israel rules through military orders, which have the direct and intended result of keeping Palestinians short on water. It is not an ongoing gradual dispossession as with land and settlements, but was done in one sweep by Military Order No. 92, in August 1967.
The West Bank possesses ample groundwater. There is high rainfall in Salfit, in the northern West Bank, now known for especially hard water cuts.
The West Bank is blessed with a treasure of groundwater. But this is also its curse, because Israel targeted this immediately after taking control.
What we need is simple: groundwater wells to access this treasure. But Israel’s Military Order No. 158 strictly forbids drilling or any other water works, including springs, pipes, networks, pumping stations, irrigation pools, water reservoirs, simple rainwater harvesting cisterns, which collect the rain falling on one’s roof.
Everything is forbidden or rather not “permitted” by the Civil Administration, Israel’s occupation regime. Even repair and maintenance of wells requires military permits. And we simply don’t get them.
It is a simple case of hydro-apartheid – far beyond any regime in history that I am aware of.
CS: Israel has increased the amount of water it sells Palestinians, but it is still not enough to prevent villages from running dry. Putting aside the fact that Israel’s control over the aquifer’s resources is very problematic, why won’t Israel sell the Palestinians enough water?
CM: Israel first of all has drastically reduced the amount of water available to Palestinians. It has prevented all access to the Jordan River, which is now literally pumped dry at Lake Tiberias.
Then, Israel imposes a quota on the number of wells and routinely denies permits for much-needed repair of old wells from the Jordanian days – Jordan administered the West Bank from 1948 until the Israeli occupation – especially agricultural wells. That means the number of wells is constantly shrinking. We have fewer than in 1967.
Now, the only thing that has increased is the dependency on buying water from the expropriators, Israel and Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.
This is reported over and over in the western press, because it is the point Israel stresses: ‘See how benevolent we are?’
So, yes, since Oslo, purchases from Mekorot have grown steadily. Ramallah now receives 100 percent of its water from Mekorot. Not a drop comes from a single well field we have.
The supply of villages by Israel was not done as a favor. It was initiated in 1980 by Ariel Sharon, then agriculture minister, when rapid settlement growth was starting. The water supply was “integrated,” in order to make the occupation irreversible.
What is important here is the structural apartheid, cemented and cast in iron in these pipes. A small settlement is supplied via large transmission pipes from which smaller pipes split off to go towards Palestinian areas.
Israel is very happy with Oslo, because now Palestinians are “responsible” for supply. Responsible but without a shred of sovereignty over resources.
The current so-called water crisis is not a crisis at all. A crisis is a sudden change, a new turn or a turning point in development. The undersupply of Palestinians is desired, planned and carefully executed. The “summer water crisis” is the most reliable feature of the Palestinian water calendar. And the amount of annual rain, or drought, has no bearing whatsoever on the occurrence and scale of that “crisis.”
I should stress that however routinely this occurs, in each and every single case, it is a conscious decision by some bureaucrat or office in Israel or the Civil Administration. Someone has to go to the field and turn down the valve at the split off to the Palestinian village. This, like every summer, was done in early June. Hence – water crisis in the West Bank.
CS: What factors may be contributing to the worsening water cuts this year?
CM: It seems settler demand rose drastically since last year. The Israeli Water Authority found 20 to 40 percent higher demand, which is quite remarkable.
Alexander Kushnir, the Water Authority’s director general, attributes this to expansion of settler irrigation in the mountains of the northern West Bank settlements, around Salfit and Nablus.
CS: How is it that people in present-day Israel are reportedly enjoying a surplus of water since the country has started using desalination, while the people under occupation in the West Bank are left with so little? Even Israeli settlers have reportedly experienced water cuts.
CM: It’s true that Israel declared for the first time a few years ago that it had a surplus water economy and is keen to sell more water to its neighbors, from whom it expropriated water in the first place.
Palestinians are already buying water Israel stole, but as noted, not reliably or at sufficient rates.
Frankly, I don’t know. Why this special, elevated and aggravated desire of Israel not even to sell enough water to the West Bank?
In some areas, water is actively used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing, like in the Jordan Valley. Agriculture was always targeted from day one of the occupation.
But this logic does not apply to the densely populated Palestinian towns and cities in so-called Area A of the West Bank, that are still struggling. After 20 years, this still leaves me puzzled.
Another element is important to understand: Israel needs to constantly teach Palestinians a lesson. Any water procurement, any drop delivered should be understood as a generous favor, as an act of mercy, not as a right.
Israel has augmented water sales to the West Bank from 25 million cubic meters per year in 1995 to around 60 mcm/year now. Why does it not sell much more? It certainly could afford it waterwise – it has a gigantic surplus.
One of the material issues I can detect is the issue of price, and therefore meaning of water.
Israel wants to eventually get the highest price for desalinated water it sells to Palestinians. While we are only speaking about a few hundred million shekels a year [a few tens of millions of dollars] – which is not a lot for Israel – Israel wants to end the debate once and for all over Palestinian water rights.
Israel demands nothing short of a full surrender: Palestinians should agree that the water under their feet does not belong to them, but forever to the occupier.
By demanding full prices for desalinated water, Palestinians would admit and agree to a new formula.
A word on the Gaza Strip – unlike the West Bank, Gaza has no physical possibility of access to water. The confined and densely populated Strip can never supply itself. Yet, Gaza does not get such water deliveries from Israel. Only recently did Israel start selling to Gaza the five million cubic meters per year agreed in Oslo. A tiny cosmetic increase has been enacted.
In a way you could interpret this differential treatment between Gaza and the West Bank as an Israeli admission of a certain degree of hydrological dependence.
Israel receives the bulk of its water from the territories conquered in 1967, including Syria’s Golan Heights, but not a drop from Gaza.
Waterwise, Gaza has no resource to offer Israel. This is the same as with the main resource: land. Hence a very different approach to Gaza right from the start in 1967. Israel does not depend on Gaza in any material form. Ever since Oslo, Israel has demanded Gaza supply itself by its own means, such as through seawater desalination.
CS: How have donor countries acted in all this? Have they defended global minimal water standards or have they affirmed and bolstered Israel’s control over the water resources in the occupied West Bank?
CM: Unfortunately the latter. When Oslo started, we all were under the illusion that a phase of development would start. Wells that were forbidden to be drilled for 28 years would finally be put in place.
Soon, we learned that Israel in fact was never willing to give “permits … for expanding agriculture or industry, which may compete with the State of Israel,” as then-defense minister Yitzhak Rabin said in 1986.
What was needed then and now – and everybody knew it – was political pressure to extract the minimum well-drilling permits guaranteed under Palestinian-Israeli accords. This pressure never came. Never did the EU or my German government issue even a public statement in which it “deplores” or “regrets” the obstructions in the water sector. This is a true scandal.
But even worse, what was our Western answer to this? All donor-funded projects actually abandoned the vital branch of well drilling. The last German funded well was drilled in 1999.
As for the current so-called water crisis, we as donors are now busy generously funding anachronistic water tankering in the cut-off Palestinian towns and cities – adapting to and stabilizing the status quo of occupation and water apartheid.
24 Israeli illegal settlement units in Salfit have torn Palestinian towns and villages from limb to limb and depleted agricultural lands.
Talking in an exclusive statement to the PIC, researcher Khaled Maali said the increasing pace of illegal settlement expansion crushed the master plans for Palestinian towns and villages.
Palestinians have been banned from constructing residential homes over the territory after Israel claimed it as part of Area C.
According to Maali, the illegal settlement expansion has affected Salfit province as it has done all other areas of the occupied West Bank, a home to over three million Palestinians.
The Israeli occupation authorities have also prevented developmental projects for Palestinians in such locations as Area A, in a flagrant violation of the Oslo Accord.
Israel has even held sway over Palestinians’ natural resources including water.
Jenin’s and Salfit’s water supplies have been cut by half under counterfeit pretexts.
Maali warned of an Israeli preplanned attempt to wipe out Palestinians’ presence and to boost illegal settlements across the occupied territories, a plan that has also been nurtured by arbitrary home demolitions under the unlicensed construction pretext.
24 illegal settlement outposts, including four industrial zones and three nature reserves, along with streets, bypasses, military camps, and watchtowers, have turned Salfit from the “olive province” to an area engulfed by apartheid walls and illegal settlements from all corners.
Maali warned that in case Israel keeps up such a pace for illegal settlement activity Palestinians in Salfit and in the occupied West Bank will barely, if ever, have lands to cultivate, earn from, or even live in.
Talking in an exclusive statement to the PIC, researcher Khaled Maali said the increasing pace of illegal settlement expansion crushed the master plans for Palestinian towns and villages.
Palestinians have been banned from constructing residential homes over the territory after Israel claimed it as part of Area C.
According to Maali, the illegal settlement expansion has affected Salfit province as it has done all other areas of the occupied West Bank, a home to over three million Palestinians.
The Israeli occupation authorities have also prevented developmental projects for Palestinians in such locations as Area A, in a flagrant violation of the Oslo Accord.
Israel has even held sway over Palestinians’ natural resources including water.
Jenin’s and Salfit’s water supplies have been cut by half under counterfeit pretexts.
Maali warned of an Israeli preplanned attempt to wipe out Palestinians’ presence and to boost illegal settlements across the occupied territories, a plan that has also been nurtured by arbitrary home demolitions under the unlicensed construction pretext.
24 illegal settlement outposts, including four industrial zones and three nature reserves, along with streets, bypasses, military camps, and watchtowers, have turned Salfit from the “olive province” to an area engulfed by apartheid walls and illegal settlements from all corners.
Maali warned that in case Israel keeps up such a pace for illegal settlement activity Palestinians in Salfit and in the occupied West Bank will barely, if ever, have lands to cultivate, earn from, or even live in.
27 july 2016
Amid scorching summer heat, the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has reduced anew the water supply to Salfit province by 50 percent, causing some damage to cultivated plots of land.
Local researcher Khaled al-Ma'ali said that the IOA uses false pretexts to create a water crisis in order to put pressure on the Palestinian population in Salfit and other West Bank areas.
Ma'ali stressed that Israel's reduction of water supplies to Palestinian areas violates the international humanitarian law, which prohibits any occupying power from taking any action that adversely affects the lives of civilians living under its occupation.
The Palestinians in all areas of the West Bank suffer from acute water shortages because of Israel's control of water resources.
Local researcher Khaled al-Ma'ali said that the IOA uses false pretexts to create a water crisis in order to put pressure on the Palestinian population in Salfit and other West Bank areas.
Ma'ali stressed that Israel's reduction of water supplies to Palestinian areas violates the international humanitarian law, which prohibits any occupying power from taking any action that adversely affects the lives of civilians living under its occupation.
The Palestinians in all areas of the West Bank suffer from acute water shortages because of Israel's control of water resources.
25 july 2016
|
Al-Marsad Arab Human Rights Centre, in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, has re-published their report, “Water is Life: A Consideration of the Legality and Consequences of Israeli Exploitation of the Water Resources of the Occupied Syrian Golan.”
The report details the discriminatory policies and exploitation of water resources in the occupied Syrian Golan. Water exploitation in the Golan began in 1968, when the Israeli military started to oversee and manage water resources in the newly occupied territories. Since then, Israel has systematically discriminated against the indigenous Arab population in the region by denying them the right to manage and utilize their own water resources. |
Currently, Israeli settlers in the region have unchecked access to water resources, while locals experience significant restrictions.
Al-Marsad estimates this disparity in water consumption to be at 4:1. The indigenous peoples are also forced to pay more for water that they do receive.
Private corporations directly benefit from Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan and its exploitation of water resources. Al-Marsad’s report highlights Eden Springs, a corporation which distributes 368 millions of liters of water a year and both extracts and bottles its water in illegal settlements in the Golan.
Al-Marsad calls for an end to the occupation, as well as an immediate halt to Israeli settlement expansion. Furthermore, it calls on the international community to pressure both Israel and the private corporations to stop their illegal exploitation the Golan’s natural resources.
Read more: http://bit.ly/2a84xcH
In spite of the fact Syria is in the so-called “fertile crescent”, Syria has suffered massive droughts since Turkey Dammed the rivers flowing into Syria and Iraq. Syria’s water resources must be rationed amongst its 23 million people, according to Maram Susli.
US secretary of State John Kerry recently called for Syria to be partitioned saying it was “Plan B”, if negotiations fail. But, in reality, this was always plan A, according to Dawson. Plans to “Balkanize” Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern states were laid out by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a 2006 trip to Tel Aviv. It was part of the so called “Project For a New Middle East”.
Susli allegates that this was a carbon copy of the “Odid Yinon” plan, drawn up by Israel in 1982. The plan outlined the way in which Middle Eastern countries could be Balkanized along sectarian lines. This would result in the creation of several weak landlocked micro-states that would be in perpetual war with each other and never united enough to resist Israeli expansionism.
In the Middle East, wars are also fought over water, explains geo-political analyst Ryan Dawson. (See video.)
The areas that the Yinon plan intends to carve out of Syria, are the coastal areas of Latakia and the region of Al Hasake. These are areas where a substantial amount of Syria’s water, agriculture and oil are located. The intention is to leave the majority of the Syrian population in a landlocked starving rump state, and create a situation where perpetual war between divided Syrians is inevitable.
Al-Marsad estimates this disparity in water consumption to be at 4:1. The indigenous peoples are also forced to pay more for water that they do receive.
Private corporations directly benefit from Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan and its exploitation of water resources. Al-Marsad’s report highlights Eden Springs, a corporation which distributes 368 millions of liters of water a year and both extracts and bottles its water in illegal settlements in the Golan.
Al-Marsad calls for an end to the occupation, as well as an immediate halt to Israeli settlement expansion. Furthermore, it calls on the international community to pressure both Israel and the private corporations to stop their illegal exploitation the Golan’s natural resources.
Read more: http://bit.ly/2a84xcH
In spite of the fact Syria is in the so-called “fertile crescent”, Syria has suffered massive droughts since Turkey Dammed the rivers flowing into Syria and Iraq. Syria’s water resources must be rationed amongst its 23 million people, according to Maram Susli.
US secretary of State John Kerry recently called for Syria to be partitioned saying it was “Plan B”, if negotiations fail. But, in reality, this was always plan A, according to Dawson. Plans to “Balkanize” Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern states were laid out by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a 2006 trip to Tel Aviv. It was part of the so called “Project For a New Middle East”.
Susli allegates that this was a carbon copy of the “Odid Yinon” plan, drawn up by Israel in 1982. The plan outlined the way in which Middle Eastern countries could be Balkanized along sectarian lines. This would result in the creation of several weak landlocked micro-states that would be in perpetual war with each other and never united enough to resist Israeli expansionism.
In the Middle East, wars are also fought over water, explains geo-political analyst Ryan Dawson. (See video.)
The areas that the Yinon plan intends to carve out of Syria, are the coastal areas of Latakia and the region of Al Hasake. These are areas where a substantial amount of Syria’s water, agriculture and oil are located. The intention is to leave the majority of the Syrian population in a landlocked starving rump state, and create a situation where perpetual war between divided Syrians is inevitable.
21 july 2016
A European parliamentary delegation on Thursday visited locations of vital projects funded by the European Union (EU) in the Gaza Strip and met with officials from the competent authorities.
The delegation, led by French lawmaker Jean Arthuis, visited first the wastewater treatment plant in north Gaza. The project is funded by the EU, the World Bank, France and Sweden.
The European lawmakers also paid an inspection visit to the small desalination plant in south Gaza, where an agreement was signed with the management to raise its productive capacity.
During his meeting with members of the delegation, deputy head of the water authority in Gaza Rabhi al-Sheikh described the water and sewage projects that are funded by the EU and other donors as "an important lever to address the water crisis in Gaza."
He hailed the European support for such projects and highlighted their importance to the population in Gaza.
The delegation, led by French lawmaker Jean Arthuis, visited first the wastewater treatment plant in north Gaza. The project is funded by the EU, the World Bank, France and Sweden.
The European lawmakers also paid an inspection visit to the small desalination plant in south Gaza, where an agreement was signed with the management to raise its productive capacity.
During his meeting with members of the delegation, deputy head of the water authority in Gaza Rabhi al-Sheikh described the water and sewage projects that are funded by the EU and other donors as "an important lever to address the water crisis in Gaza."
He hailed the European support for such projects and highlighted their importance to the population in Gaza.
18 july 2016
Israeli soldiers on Sunday harassed Bedouin shepherds in Hamsa al-Fawqa area in the Northern Jordan Valley and prohibited them from using spring water for their cattle.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that soldiers chased shepherds over the hills of Hamsa al-Fawqa area, detained some of them for a while and ordered them not to graze their herds of cattle or use spring water in the area.
The sources added that the soldiers threatened to expel all families from Hamsa al-Fawqa and seize their livestock if they disobeyed the orders.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that soldiers chased shepherds over the hills of Hamsa al-Fawqa area, detained some of them for a while and ordered them not to graze their herds of cattle or use spring water in the area.
The sources added that the soldiers threatened to expel all families from Hamsa al-Fawqa and seize their livestock if they disobeyed the orders.
16 july 2016
Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly protest in Kufur Qaddoum village, near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, causing dozens to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The Popular Committee against the Wall and Colonies in Kufur Qaddoum said dozens of soldiers invaded the village, and fired gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing dozens of residents to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The committee added that an Israeli military bulldozer damaged the main waterline, providing the village with its water, while trying to close one of the roads with sand hills.
The invasion led to clashes between the soldiers, and many local youths who hurled stones and empty bottles at the military vehicles.
In addition, the soldiers closed the village, since early-morning hours, and prevented media teams from entering it.
It is worth mentioning that the soldiers also used surveillance drones to film the protestors.
The Popular Committee against the Wall and Colonies in Kufur Qaddoum said dozens of soldiers invaded the village, and fired gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing dozens of residents to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The committee added that an Israeli military bulldozer damaged the main waterline, providing the village with its water, while trying to close one of the roads with sand hills.
The invasion led to clashes between the soldiers, and many local youths who hurled stones and empty bottles at the military vehicles.
In addition, the soldiers closed the village, since early-morning hours, and prevented media teams from entering it.
It is worth mentioning that the soldiers also used surveillance drones to film the protestors.