By: David G. Johnson
Water, water everywhere... but not a drop to drink was an adage professed by sailors that were surrounded by the sea reminding them of the importance of the precious resource. Perhaps the famous adage will now be applicable to the feeling that the Palestinians feel as they gaze at Israel's security fence that will soon surround them. An issue that seldom receives any press coverage is the fact that Israel controls over 80% of the occupied territories potable water supply and it has no intention of relinquishing its control. In fact, Israel is currently trying to get the United States to fund a desalination plant in order to supply the occupied territories with water. What a bunch of nice guys those Israelis are, always thinking of what they can do in order to help the Palestinians.. huh? Wait a second, why would the Palestinians want a desalination plant when they are sitting on an aquifer that supplies Israel with 25% of its water? Because Israel has no intent of letting them have control or expanded access to what it describes as its property.
Here is what a report regarding Israel's water situation says would be the issue if the Palestinians were given control of their water:
Although Israel's national survival would be at stake, at what point could Jerusalem re-invade the Golan or Judea and Samaria? When the water supply goes down to the danger levels, or when its irreversibly damaged? What justification would be acceptable to the United States and/or the UN who may feel there are more pressing problems to deal with besides Palestinian municipal mismanagement or terrorist well-digging, or Damascus' diverting the Jordan River's headwaters to irrigate Syrian fields?
It has often been predicted that the next war in the Middle East would be over water instead of oil, but I don't think that Al-Qaeda spends much time on well digging techniques in their training camps. However, Israel could probably conduct some very extensive seminars on the use of water in the pursuit of terror. No, I'm not talking about the ancient Chinese water drop torture technique, I'm talking about exploiting the water resources in the occupied territories in violation of International law. First they substantially restrict the Palestinians from drilling new wells or expanding the output from existing wells and then they sell them water that was drawn from their wells. Meanwhile, because the Israeli wells are deeper, the existing Palestinian wells begin to run dry.
This is the situation as described in a report by Yehezkiel Lein entitled Disputed Waters: One of the first steps Israel took after occupying the territories in 1967 was to proclaim (Military Order 92, of 1967) all the water resources to be public property, as was the case in Israel itself since 1959. This measure, together with others taken by Israel, created a system that prevents the Palestinians from utilizing their water resources in a manner that meets their basic needs and the population's natural birth rate. (later in report) Many wells that had been in use prior to 1967 are no longer functioning because of technical and/or maintenance problems, or because they have dried up. Israel did not allow their owners to use these wells again, and the few permits Israel granted were not even sufficient to renew the operation of wells that had not been functioning (from the report's conclusion) Throughout most of the hot months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from a severe shortage of running water in their homes. The water shortage does not enable them to meet minimal living conditions and critically affects their health and welfare. Dozens of Palestinians need hospital treatment because of the water shortage and the use of polluted drinking water. The local hospitals are unable to properly treat patients, at times leading to life-threatening situations, because of the difficulty in maintaining proper hygiene due to the lack of sufficient water. This situation is particularly offensive in light of the abundance of water supplied to the Israeli settlements, at times from locally-drilled wells, contrary to international law.
Here is an excerpt of a report from the Water and Sanitation Hygiene Monitoring Project (WaSH MP) that demonstrates Israel's actions during military incursions: Damage to Water and Sanitation during Incursions Damage to poles, lines and other essential networks continue until today, with what seems to be like a cat and mouse game of finally getting approval to fix the damage, only to have them destroyed the following day. Destruction of the water pumps, generators, pipes as a result of gouging out streets repeatedly, in addition to punctured water tanks on roofs of homes as a result of the shooting all contribute to a very unhealthy state.
So all of sudden Israel wants the United States to pay for a water desalination plant for the occupied territories. Did they suddenly have a change of heart? That question might best be answered by this excerpt from an article from the NewScientist.com: Israel, which wants the US to fund the project, would guarantee safe passage of the water across its territory in return for an agreement that Israel can continue to take the lion's share of the waters of the West Bank. These mainly comprise underground reserves such as the western aquifer, the region's largest, cleanest and most reliable water source. (later in the article) "The question is whether an average Palestinian family can afford it," says Arie Issar, a water expert at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Sede Boker, Israel, who helped green the Israeli desert a generation ago by finding new water sources in the region. "It would be foolish to desalinate water on the coast and push it up the mountains when there are underground water resources up there, which cost only a third as much."
One can only wonder how good Israel's 'guarantee' of safe passage of the water would be since they tacitly consider drilling a well an act of terrorism directed at their very existence. I can already hear them justify bombing or cutting off the water supply because they saw a 'suspected terrorist' drinking from a water fountain (as if they exist in the occupied territory). The facts of the matter are quite clear - International law dictates that Israel has an obligation to administer the natural resources along with insuring that a suitable quantity of water be provided to the occupied territories. Any claim that Israel is merely safe-guarding the water supply is as absurd as saying that the car thief stole your car in order to make sure that the oil was changed regularly. While Palestinians suffer health problems due to the lack of water, settlers are allocated enough water in order for some to have swimming pools. A comparison of the disparity of water usage was included in a statement by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs before the House International Relations Committee: As suggested above, the people in Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza live in a constant state of water scarcity. A widely used rule of thumb is that a population is considered to be in a state of “water stress” if the average annual per capita availability of water is below 1,000 cubic meters. Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian average annual per capita availabilities are all significantly below that level. Israel, which has the most advanced water infrastructure and water management capabilities in the region, has an average annual availability of only some 250-300 cubic meters per capita. Jordan, at some 170-200 cubic meters per capita, and the Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza, at some 70-90 cubic meters per capita, are under even greater water stress.
To make a long story short, Israel views the security of its water resource a matter of National Security and any attempt to reduce it will be viewed as a threat to its existence. It is ironic that in this case that a substantial amount of the natural resource lies under someone else's land.
One good question is why doesn't Israel want to build the water desalination plant for themselves? one answer is that water desalination is more expensive than pumping water from a well. The problem with that answer is that if you calculate out the difference in cost between two methods with the current usage, the difference in cost only amounts to approximately the cost of single F-16 fighter. Another issue is control, Israel could easily cut off water from a water desalination plant with a single F-16 fighter from its fleet of jets that were supplied to it by the United States. But that answer might lead to a more appropriate answer, that is the fact that Israel has gone to the 'well' of U.S. foreign aid so often that maybe they fear that that 'well' is about to 'dry up' also. Israel has already drawn$100 billion dollars from the 'foreign aid well'. It is apparent to me that all three of the reasons could be summarized as money, greed or power. I will leave it to the reader to decide the order of prevalence.
_DATE: 27.05.2004, 13:18 Hora Printer Friendly  Email to a Friend 
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