Amnesty International is accusing Israel of pumping disproportionate amounts of drinking water from an aquifer it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their fair share.
The London-based human rights group also said in a report released yesterday that Israel has blocked infrastructure projects that would improve existing water supplies to Palestinians — both in the West Bank and those living in the Gaza Strip.
“This scarcity has affected every walk of life for Palestinians,” Amnesty’s researcher on Israel, Donatella Rovera, said in an interview on Monday ahead of the report’s release. “A greater amount of water has to be granted to them.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Israeli officials rebutted the accusations.
Water is a major point of contention between Israelis and Palestinians and is considered an issue that must be resolved before the two sides could make peace.
The issue is further compounded by the split in Palestinian territories, with the moderate Fatah movement governing the West Bank, while the militant Hamas rules the coastal Gaza Strip.
Israelis use more than four times the amount of water per person on average than do Palestinians, whose consumption falls far below the minimum amount recommended by the WHO, the report said.
The report focuses on the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank. It says that Israel uses more than 80 percent of water drawn from the aquifer, and while the Jewish state has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank’s sole supply.
As a result, the 450,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinian residents, Amnesty said.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev called Amnesty’s claims “completely ludicrous,” and said Israel holds the legal right to the aquifer since it was the first to discover, develop and pump from it.
Regev said Israel pumps less water from the Mountain Aquifer today than it did in 1967 and Palestinian consumption of fresh water has actually tripled in that time.
He blamed the Palestinians for not investing in development in the West Bank and said they have failed even to drill wells that have already been approved.
Amnesty charged that Israel routinely denies Palestinians permits to launch desperately needed water sanitation and infrastructure projects in the West Bank.
Shaul Arlosoroff, a leading Israeli authority on water acquisition and use, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank are meant to protect an already taxed aquifer from overpumping.
Amnesty also cited serious problems with water supply to the Gaza Strip.
Since Hamas seized control of the coastal territory in 2007, Gaza’s long-standing problems with sewage and water sanitation facilities have deteriorated, Rovera said. During Israel’s offensive in Gaza last year, water and sewage pipes suffered severe damage.
Rovera said the water situation in Gaza had reached a “crisis point,” with 90 percent to 95 percent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
An Israeli blockade of Gaza has halted any repairs to the strip’s overburdened sewage and water networks, preventing materials and equipment to repair the infrastructure from getting in, Rovera said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of