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.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television