The Independent: 'Israel' depriving the occupied West Bank of water

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Independent
17 Aug 2023 16:18
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A report by the Independent reveals that the Israeli occupation has been inhumanely depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of water for decades.

A Palestinian farmer irrigates her land in the West Bank village of Battir on June 17, 2012. (AFP)

Daily killings, home destructions, land grabs, and a tight blockade have left the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank under Israeli occupation hoping just to survive another day, let alone aim for a better life.

But the agonized territory is also facing a silent, slow death that is rarely discussed: an Israeli-imposed water embargo, which not only impacts the lives of Palestinian residents, but also their farmland and animal stocks, the Independent said in a report published on Thursday.

Palestine does not suffer from water shortage, rather, it has an abundance of it. However, it is the Israeli theft and cruel and inhumane practices that are leaving the impoverished area lacking the vital natural resource that is indispensable for human survival.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation settlements illegally established in the region are drowning - figuratively - from all the water they receive. Their children enjoy cool water in the hot summers, their plantations thrive, and their hygiene is well taken care of.

In sharp contrast, Palestinians are even struggling to take a quick shower as their green trees and meadows are going brown. Sheep, cows, chickens, and other livestock needed for survival in the agricultural community are dying away - particularly in the extremely fertile Jordan Valley.

A decades-long system imposed by the Israeli occupation authority dictates that water to the West Bank must pass through a company owned by the entity.

Since the 1990s, over 80 percent of the West Bank's water reserves have been under Israeli direct control - among other aspects of Palestinian life in the area. On the other hand, the occupation entity has built sophisticated and advanced water grids and networks connected to its illegal settlements, while Palestinian villages are not provided access to this infrastructure.

“People are thirsty, the crops are thirsty,” Hazeh Daraghmeh, a 63-year-old Palestinian date farmer in a village in the Jordan Valley, told the news site.

The entity's water management firm slashed 25% of water supplies to territories where Palestinians reside in Al-Khalil and Beit Lahm in the past nine weeks.

United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA revealed in a recent report that, since 2021, Israelis have destroyed almost 160 Palestinian reservoirs, sewage networks and wells across the occupied West Bank and east Al-Quds.

In clear violation of world-agreed upon human need of water consumption, Palestinians living in herding communities in the northern Jordan Valley consume just around 26 liters per day, far below the amount - which the World Health Organization considers to be a disaster zone - of minimum 50-100 liters a day, B’Tselem noted.

On the other hand, Israeli occupation settlers in the Jordan Valley consume 400-700 liters per capita a day, B’Tselem added.

“The main motivation for Israeli actions are not so much about water anymore but about politics,” said Jan Selby of University of Sheffield, expert on politicizing of water resources.

“Agricultural cultivation is a much more effective way to grab land than construction,” anti-settlement researcher Dror Etkes said.