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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/israel-worlds-leading-practitioner-water-apartheid">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/israel-worlds-leading-practitioner-water-apartheid</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Israel is world’s leading practitioner of
water apartheid</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/adri-nieuwhof"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Adri Nieuwhof</a></span> <span
class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2017-03-29T20:12:11+00:00">29 March 2017</span></span>
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<p>Israel markets its water expertise as an agent of
change internationally but uses water as a weapon of war
against the Palestinians, according to South Africa’s
minister of water and sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane.</p>
<p>The minister was criticizing Israel’s policies in a <a
href="http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/post/sa-water-minister-anc-nec-member-israeliapartheidweek/">speech</a>
during <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-apartheid-week">Israeli
Apartheid Week</a> delivered earlier this month at the
Stellenbosch University in South Africa.</p>
<p>Mokonyane said Israel’s water story has “two faces.”
One is Israel as the “world’s leading practitioner of
water apartheid.” Israel has full control of all water
access and water use in historic Palestine – the West
Bank, Gaza Strip and present-day Israel. This “skewed
distribution” leaves Palestinians in the West Bank with
73 liters per person per day, Mokonyane said, compared
to 240-300 liters for Israelis.</p>
<p>The Palestinian share is far less than the World Health
Organization’s recommendation of <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/water/discrimination_in_water_supply">100
liters</a> per person per day for domestic use,
hospitals, schools and other institutions.</p>
<h2>Water apartheid</h2>
<p>In addition, hundreds of Palestinian communities in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are not connected to
water supplies, the minister told her audience. And <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mekorot">Mekorot</a>
– Israel’s national water company – frequently <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israels-hydro-apartheid-keeps-west-bank-thirsty">shuts
down water supply</a> to Palestinians.</p>
<p>High water insecurity combined with daily hardships
hamper “any reasonable development.” This,
“unmistakably,” draws parallels to the brutality of
South African apartheid and the Bantu homelands,
Mokonyane said: Israel is using water as a weapon of war
instead of an agent for change, a “tool to control the
Palestinian state.”</p>
<p>The other face is Israel’s role as a leading water
technology innovator with a vibrant industry selling its
products and solutions to the world. Israeli water
technology and related agricultural exports reached $2.2
billion in 2013, according to the minister, some of
which was sold to South Africa. This face is what the
Israeli government wants us “to see and focus on,”
Mokonyane said.</p>
<h2>Marketing water technology to counter BDS</h2>
<p>It is a weapon Israel hopes to use against the growing
boycott, divestment and sanctions (<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">BDS</a>)
movement in support of Palestinian rights. Assisting
Africa with water technology could help to counter the
movement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
suggested at the <a
href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-crop-water-technology-win-friends-africa-193748852.html">Milan
Expo</a> two years ago.</p>
<p>“People today around the world have a better quality
of life thanks to Israeli technology and
innovation,” he said. “This is much stronger than any
boycott.” </p>
<p>But Israel’s effort to present itself as a savior in
South Africa failed last year when a water summit was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/south-african-water-conference-called-amid-protest-israels-role">canceled</a>
after protests against the planned participation of an
Israeli diplomat.</p>
<p>Mokonyane concluded her remarks by calling for support
of BDS efforts to put pressure on Israel to recognize
the right of Palestinians to self-determination.</p>
<p>South African anti-apartheid veterans can speak with
authority about Israeli apartheid. It is the reason the
Israeli government and its lobby continue to attack
South Africans who make the comparison between apartheid
in South Africa and Israel. <a
href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1742/bishop-tutu-is-no-saint-when-it-comes-to-jews">Archbishop
Desmond Tutu</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/why-i-must-oppose-smears-against-israels-critics-germany">Farid
Esack</a>, <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/south-african-jews-slam-israel-for-banning-minister/">ministers</a>
of the South African government, <a
href="http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/politics-and-military/politics/israel-to-reprimand-south-africas-envoy-over-ministers-remarks-27142">including
Mokonyane</a>, and <a
href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/iaw-hands-of-jessie-duarte--bds-sa">leaders
in the ANC</a>, the party once led by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/nelson-mandela-leaves-legacy-struggle/12983">Nelson
Mandela</a>, have all been denied entry to or censured
by Israel at some point or smeared with false
accusations of anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>Such efforts will not halt comparisons between racist
rule in South Africa and Israel, or calls for BDS.</p>
<br>
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