25 july 2019
Israeli forces invaded Khirbet Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, near Hebron in the southern West Bank Thursday, and destroyed dozens of olive trees, water irrigation systems and four water wells used by Palestinian Bedouin farmers. tweet
This comes two weeks after Israeli forces invaded the same village and destroyed a children’s park, nine water wells and uprooted a forest of trees in Umm al-Khair’s nature reserve area under the pretext that the area is now an Israeli military training zone.
Rateb Jabour, coordinator of the national and popular committees in the south of the West Bank, told the Palestinian Wafa News Agency that the residents of Umm al-Khair and area villages, who are mainly herders, depend on the water for irrigating their land and for their cattle.
Jabour stressed that Israel is trying to displace these residents as a precursor to taking over their land.
The village of Umm al-Khair is located on land that Israeli authorities are attempting to annex into the settlement of Carmel, which was constructed on stolen village land.
Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote in 2010 that Carmel is “a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business.
Beyond its barbed wire fencing, the Bedouins of Umm al-Kheir in shanties are denied connection to the electricity grid, barns for their livestock and toilets, and all attempts to build permanent dwellings are demolished.
Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, noted that the chickens of Carmel’s poultry farm get more electricity and water than the Palestinian Bedouin nearby.”
Awda Mohammad, a resident of the village, wrote in a 2017 article for the Israeli leftist +972Mag entitled, My village is under threat. I’m not giving up hope, “I believe, like my father did, that we have the right to live without the constant threat of demolition, to have enough clean water, to have good houses that we can live in during all seasons, to have a community center for our children, and for all of us to continue learning and growing, to live without fear, and to do what we want as autonomous humans.”
Umm al-Khair is home to around 70 Palestinian Bedouins who have faced multiple demolitions of their homes by Israeli forces.
This comes two weeks after Israeli forces invaded the same village and destroyed a children’s park, nine water wells and uprooted a forest of trees in Umm al-Khair’s nature reserve area under the pretext that the area is now an Israeli military training zone.
Rateb Jabour, coordinator of the national and popular committees in the south of the West Bank, told the Palestinian Wafa News Agency that the residents of Umm al-Khair and area villages, who are mainly herders, depend on the water for irrigating their land and for their cattle.
Jabour stressed that Israel is trying to displace these residents as a precursor to taking over their land.
The village of Umm al-Khair is located on land that Israeli authorities are attempting to annex into the settlement of Carmel, which was constructed on stolen village land.
Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote in 2010 that Carmel is “a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business.
Beyond its barbed wire fencing, the Bedouins of Umm al-Kheir in shanties are denied connection to the electricity grid, barns for their livestock and toilets, and all attempts to build permanent dwellings are demolished.
Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, noted that the chickens of Carmel’s poultry farm get more electricity and water than the Palestinian Bedouin nearby.”
Awda Mohammad, a resident of the village, wrote in a 2017 article for the Israeli leftist +972Mag entitled, My village is under threat. I’m not giving up hope, “I believe, like my father did, that we have the right to live without the constant threat of demolition, to have enough clean water, to have good houses that we can live in during all seasons, to have a community center for our children, and for all of us to continue learning and growing, to live without fear, and to do what we want as autonomous humans.”
Umm al-Khair is home to around 70 Palestinian Bedouins who have faced multiple demolitions of their homes by Israeli forces.
23 july 2019
The head of the Water Authority, Mazen Ghoneim, announced today the completion of the sea water desalination plant project in Gaza City.
Ghoneim said in a press release that the experimental operation of the station, which has a capacity of producing 10,000 cubic meters per day, will serve more than 200,000 citizens living in Gaza and northern Gaza districts.
He said the water from this station will be mixed with the water reservoirs constructed by the Water Authority.
He pointed out that work is underway to connect the station to the electricity network to ensure continuity and stability of its work in order to move to permanent operation expected to be in less than three months.
He thanked the sponsors of this project, which cost $15 million funded by the Kuwaiti Fund through the Islamic Development Bank in cooperation with the Coastal Municipality Water Utility.
Ghoneim stressed that the project was completed after three years during which the Water Authority was able to overcome all the challenges, especially Israel’s refusal to allow the entry of materials necessary for electromechanical equipment.
The Gaza water desalination plant is the second station to be completed in 2019 after the Deir al-Balah station in accordance with the Water Authority's plan to supply the two million residents of the Gaza Strip with safe drinking water, develop water services and stop the deterioration in the underground water reservoir.
Meanwhile, Ghoneim signed today in Ramallah a memorandum of understanding with the head of Department for International Development (DFID) office in Palestine Colleen Wainwright to support the construction of central desalination plant in the Gaza Strip at a cost of 9 million Sterling pounds.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the plant is very important for the Gaza Strip to relieve its residents from their suffering since the water situation in Gaza has reached a very critical stage.
Ghoneim said in a press release that the experimental operation of the station, which has a capacity of producing 10,000 cubic meters per day, will serve more than 200,000 citizens living in Gaza and northern Gaza districts.
He said the water from this station will be mixed with the water reservoirs constructed by the Water Authority.
He pointed out that work is underway to connect the station to the electricity network to ensure continuity and stability of its work in order to move to permanent operation expected to be in less than three months.
He thanked the sponsors of this project, which cost $15 million funded by the Kuwaiti Fund through the Islamic Development Bank in cooperation with the Coastal Municipality Water Utility.
Ghoneim stressed that the project was completed after three years during which the Water Authority was able to overcome all the challenges, especially Israel’s refusal to allow the entry of materials necessary for electromechanical equipment.
The Gaza water desalination plant is the second station to be completed in 2019 after the Deir al-Balah station in accordance with the Water Authority's plan to supply the two million residents of the Gaza Strip with safe drinking water, develop water services and stop the deterioration in the underground water reservoir.
Meanwhile, Ghoneim signed today in Ramallah a memorandum of understanding with the head of Department for International Development (DFID) office in Palestine Colleen Wainwright to support the construction of central desalination plant in the Gaza Strip at a cost of 9 million Sterling pounds.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the plant is very important for the Gaza Strip to relieve its residents from their suffering since the water situation in Gaza has reached a very critical stage.
16 july 2019
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) demolished a pool used for irrigation in Wadi al-Ghroos, an area close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, to the east of the occupied southern West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday.
WAFA News correspondent said a large unit of IOF, accompanied by bulldozers and other heavy machinery, raided the area and demolished the 4500 cubic meter pool owned by local resident Ziad Jaabari.
The pool is used for the irrigation of fields and crops, and the pretext for demolition was that it was built in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under full Israeli military rule. video
The correspondent added that Israeli forces verbally insulted and physically attacked residents, journalists and activists while they were at the scene. video
Jaabari said the pool was used to collect rain water in order to use during the summer season to irrigate their farms, expressing fear that without the pool and the water, many crops, in particular tomatoes and cucumbers, may get ruined.
Several houses in the same area have been given notices of demolition by Israeli soldiers for the same reason, which is construction without a the impossible-to-get permit in Area C.
WAFA News correspondent said a large unit of IOF, accompanied by bulldozers and other heavy machinery, raided the area and demolished the 4500 cubic meter pool owned by local resident Ziad Jaabari.
The pool is used for the irrigation of fields and crops, and the pretext for demolition was that it was built in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under full Israeli military rule. video
The correspondent added that Israeli forces verbally insulted and physically attacked residents, journalists and activists while they were at the scene. video
Jaabari said the pool was used to collect rain water in order to use during the summer season to irrigate their farms, expressing fear that without the pool and the water, many crops, in particular tomatoes and cucumbers, may get ruined.
Several houses in the same area have been given notices of demolition by Israeli soldiers for the same reason, which is construction without a the impossible-to-get permit in Area C.
Israeli settlers flood Khan al Ahmar with wastewater
by Ramzy Baroud
Writing in The Jewish Journal under the title, “A Spillover Crisis: How Gaza’s Water Shortage Affects Israel”, Dominik Doehler explains the direct link between Gaza’s water problems and Israel.
Doehler offered a scientific explanation behind the besieged Strip’s water crisis, but when it was time to assign responsibility, something went wrong. Instead of recognising how Israel’s war and protracted siege destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, the writer blamed the “ongoing conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority” for Gaza’s suffering.
“Today, those who pay the price of the conflict between the Palestinian factions are the two million people in Gaza,” Doehler writes, without any mention of Israel’s primary role in any of this.
The dishonesty of the writer should not be entirely surprising, considering the biased nature of the publication. This is particularly symptomatic of Israeli and pro-Israeli media which often shy away from acknowledging the facts, but deflect responsibility from Israel, and point the finger of blame on Palestinians only.
That said, it is interesting that Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis is finally registering in Israel as a pressing problem requiring action. However, it is not the impact of the crisis on the population of Gaza that is sounding the alarm bells in Tel Aviv, but rather the potential environmental damage Gaza’s ongoing misery may cause Israel.
On June 3, researchers from Israel’s Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion universities presented a report commissioned by the environmental organization, EcoPeace Middle East, in which they warned that “the collapsing water, sewage and electricity infrastructure in the Gaza Strip pose a material danger to Israel’s groundwater, seawater, beaches and desalination plants”.
One would expect any report on the environmental situation in Gaza to focus on the fact that nearly two million Palestinians in the Strip are living in inhumane conditions due to a relentless 12-year Israeli blockade and repeated devastating military assaults which are rending the area “uninhabitable by 2020“.
Instead, the report has implied that the residents are solely responsible for the imminent environmental catastrophe in Gaza, which is threatening the security and well-being of Israeli citizens. The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which published a detailed report on the presentation, also spun the issue as a matter of national security.
But what Israel has now identified as a “national security problem” is indeed a disaster of its own making. The occupation, colonisation, dispossession and aggression against Palestine and the Palestinians have caused untold environmental damage to the extent that now, even the Israeli occupier is suffering.
The environmental situation in Gaza is indeed dire at the moment, but it is not the Palestinians who made it so. Neither the “rapid population growth”, nor neglect or ignorance of residents that are its root causes. Countless reports by the United Nations and other organisations have documented in detail how and why the main culprit is Israel, its violent assaults on Gaza and its merciless siege.
Take the problem of untreated sewage ending up in the sea, which is causing issues for Israeli beach-goers and water desalination plants. The reason why Gaza’s sewage is getting disposed of in this “irresponsible” way is that water treatment plants are not operational; they were targeted in the 2014 Israeli assault on the Strip and were never rebuilt because the Israeli siege does not allow for construction materials and spare parts to be brought in.
Untreated sewage is part of the larger water crisis in Gaza. As the report rightly points out, Gaza residents are overusing the aquifer under the Strip, which has become increasingly contaminated with seawater and chemicals and which constitutes the only source of freshwater for residents because of the involuntary separation with the West Bank.
The reason for Palestinians in Gaza being unable to establish a proper water management system is again Israel’s doing. Israel has repeatedly bombed its water infrastructure, including water pipes, wells and other facilities, and the debilitating Israeli siege has prevented the local authorities from fixing it and building a water desalination plant.
Gaza’s water problem is not only an annoyance for the Israelis but a potential source of an epidemic for the Palestinians. Already, diarrheal diseases have doubled, reaching epidemic levels, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, while salmonella and typhoid fever are also on the rise.
Then there is the problem with rubbish which Palestinians are burning, hence “polluting Israeli air”. As Cambridge University academic, Ramy Salemdeeb, has pointed out, Gaza has been unable to develop a proper waste management system because of economic restrictions due to the Israeli siege and a “limited land availability” because of its isolation from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Given that Israel is a settler-colonial project, the overexploitation of the colonised land to the detriment of the environment and the local population is naturally a part of its modus operandi.
Indeed, all the land Israel has taken and occupied has suffered from environmental degradation in one way or another, with its harmful effects being conveniently shifted towards Palestinians area, villages and cities.
If Israel continues to treat the issue as a “security problem” it will never get resolved because at the heart of it is the destructive logic of a colonial enterprise which seeks to exploit both land and people with no regard for nature and human wellbeing.
In other words, Israel will never achieve security – environmental or otherwise – as long as it continues to oppress the Palestinians, occupy their land and ravage the environment. Israeli air, water and the overall environment will never be immune from the Israeli-made disasters in occupied Palestine.
by Ramzy Baroud
Writing in The Jewish Journal under the title, “A Spillover Crisis: How Gaza’s Water Shortage Affects Israel”, Dominik Doehler explains the direct link between Gaza’s water problems and Israel.
Doehler offered a scientific explanation behind the besieged Strip’s water crisis, but when it was time to assign responsibility, something went wrong. Instead of recognising how Israel’s war and protracted siege destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, the writer blamed the “ongoing conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority” for Gaza’s suffering.
“Today, those who pay the price of the conflict between the Palestinian factions are the two million people in Gaza,” Doehler writes, without any mention of Israel’s primary role in any of this.
The dishonesty of the writer should not be entirely surprising, considering the biased nature of the publication. This is particularly symptomatic of Israeli and pro-Israeli media which often shy away from acknowledging the facts, but deflect responsibility from Israel, and point the finger of blame on Palestinians only.
That said, it is interesting that Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis is finally registering in Israel as a pressing problem requiring action. However, it is not the impact of the crisis on the population of Gaza that is sounding the alarm bells in Tel Aviv, but rather the potential environmental damage Gaza’s ongoing misery may cause Israel.
On June 3, researchers from Israel’s Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion universities presented a report commissioned by the environmental organization, EcoPeace Middle East, in which they warned that “the collapsing water, sewage and electricity infrastructure in the Gaza Strip pose a material danger to Israel’s groundwater, seawater, beaches and desalination plants”.
One would expect any report on the environmental situation in Gaza to focus on the fact that nearly two million Palestinians in the Strip are living in inhumane conditions due to a relentless 12-year Israeli blockade and repeated devastating military assaults which are rending the area “uninhabitable by 2020“.
Instead, the report has implied that the residents are solely responsible for the imminent environmental catastrophe in Gaza, which is threatening the security and well-being of Israeli citizens. The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which published a detailed report on the presentation, also spun the issue as a matter of national security.
But what Israel has now identified as a “national security problem” is indeed a disaster of its own making. The occupation, colonisation, dispossession and aggression against Palestine and the Palestinians have caused untold environmental damage to the extent that now, even the Israeli occupier is suffering.
The environmental situation in Gaza is indeed dire at the moment, but it is not the Palestinians who made it so. Neither the “rapid population growth”, nor neglect or ignorance of residents that are its root causes. Countless reports by the United Nations and other organisations have documented in detail how and why the main culprit is Israel, its violent assaults on Gaza and its merciless siege.
Take the problem of untreated sewage ending up in the sea, which is causing issues for Israeli beach-goers and water desalination plants. The reason why Gaza’s sewage is getting disposed of in this “irresponsible” way is that water treatment plants are not operational; they were targeted in the 2014 Israeli assault on the Strip and were never rebuilt because the Israeli siege does not allow for construction materials and spare parts to be brought in.
Untreated sewage is part of the larger water crisis in Gaza. As the report rightly points out, Gaza residents are overusing the aquifer under the Strip, which has become increasingly contaminated with seawater and chemicals and which constitutes the only source of freshwater for residents because of the involuntary separation with the West Bank.
The reason for Palestinians in Gaza being unable to establish a proper water management system is again Israel’s doing. Israel has repeatedly bombed its water infrastructure, including water pipes, wells and other facilities, and the debilitating Israeli siege has prevented the local authorities from fixing it and building a water desalination plant.
Gaza’s water problem is not only an annoyance for the Israelis but a potential source of an epidemic for the Palestinians. Already, diarrheal diseases have doubled, reaching epidemic levels, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, while salmonella and typhoid fever are also on the rise.
Then there is the problem with rubbish which Palestinians are burning, hence “polluting Israeli air”. As Cambridge University academic, Ramy Salemdeeb, has pointed out, Gaza has been unable to develop a proper waste management system because of economic restrictions due to the Israeli siege and a “limited land availability” because of its isolation from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Given that Israel is a settler-colonial project, the overexploitation of the colonised land to the detriment of the environment and the local population is naturally a part of its modus operandi.
Indeed, all the land Israel has taken and occupied has suffered from environmental degradation in one way or another, with its harmful effects being conveniently shifted towards Palestinians area, villages and cities.
If Israel continues to treat the issue as a “security problem” it will never get resolved because at the heart of it is the destructive logic of a colonial enterprise which seeks to exploit both land and people with no regard for nature and human wellbeing.
In other words, Israel will never achieve security – environmental or otherwise – as long as it continues to oppress the Palestinians, occupy their land and ravage the environment. Israeli air, water and the overall environment will never be immune from the Israeli-made disasters in occupied Palestine.
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Video showing sewage being pumped into the sea in Gaza. This clip was taken in June of this year.
Hassan Qassem’s family failed to find a safe and clean swimming area along the shore of Gaza City to swim in because of the pollution of the sea with sewage. The seashore is the only natural relief for the two million people living in the Gaza Strip in light of the continuing electricity crisis and the 13-year-long Israeli siege. Despite encouraging reports of a drop in the rate of pollution in the sea after increasing the hours of electricity supply, this, however, has not been achieved and the problem persists. Qassem, 39, from Sheikh Radwan, east of Gaza City, brought his seven-member family, mostly children, to the Sudaniyeh seashore but where shocked to see that the color of the water was dark brown and it smelled bad. “The children insisted that we go to the sea for the summer vacation and due to the heat and power outages,” he said. “But the disaster was the pollution of the sea and therefore I prevented my children from swimming for fear for their safety and health,” Qassem told WAFA. The problem of the sea pollution with sewage is mainly due to the continuation of the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip since 2006, and thus the municipalities pump thousands of liters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. Some people do not care that the sea is polluted with sewage and they go for a swim along with their children because they cannot afford to rent private cabins placed along the shore. |
The beaches of Gaza are crowded with thousands of vacationers every day to escape the heat of the summer and the long hours of interruption of electricity from their homes.
Health authorities warn of the transmission of bacteria, parasites and viruses to vacationers because of the pollution of the sea.
Along the Gaza Strip’s 40 kilometers coastline, most areas are not suitable for swimming. Signs warning of swimming or fishing have been posted along the beach.
In general, the majority of north Gaza and Gaza governorate beaches are bad for swimming, as well as the south of the Gaza Strip where the situation is slightly better but remains relatively bad, while the best area for swimming in Zouaydeh and Deir al-Balah in the central province where pollution is low.
The problem of the sea pollution is not ed to the people, but also for those who leased rest areas from the municipalities for a large amount of money.
Some of these people told WAFA that they may not be able to pay the salaries of their workers this year, pointing out that people cannot stand the smell of the sea and the sewage pollution.
Since the start of the problem of pollution in 2013, private cabins began appearing along the coast attended by people who can afford them at a cost of between 250 and 400 shekels ($70 -$110) for 12 hours.
Unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip is about 51%, while 80% of the population depends on relief assistance provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Arab and international humanitarian agencies.
Health authorities warn of the transmission of bacteria, parasites and viruses to vacationers because of the pollution of the sea.
Along the Gaza Strip’s 40 kilometers coastline, most areas are not suitable for swimming. Signs warning of swimming or fishing have been posted along the beach.
In general, the majority of north Gaza and Gaza governorate beaches are bad for swimming, as well as the south of the Gaza Strip where the situation is slightly better but remains relatively bad, while the best area for swimming in Zouaydeh and Deir al-Balah in the central province where pollution is low.
The problem of the sea pollution is not ed to the people, but also for those who leased rest areas from the municipalities for a large amount of money.
Some of these people told WAFA that they may not be able to pay the salaries of their workers this year, pointing out that people cannot stand the smell of the sea and the sewage pollution.
Since the start of the problem of pollution in 2013, private cabins began appearing along the coast attended by people who can afford them at a cost of between 250 and 400 shekels ($70 -$110) for 12 hours.
Unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip is about 51%, while 80% of the population depends on relief assistance provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Arab and international humanitarian agencies.
