<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/apolitical-approach-palestines-water-crisis/">https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/apolitical-approach-palestines-water-crisis/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">The “Apolitical” Approach to Palestine’s
Water Crisis</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by Muna Dajani on July
30, 2017</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="post clear-post large-9 large-centered columns">
<h2><b>Overview </b></h2>
<p><span>Earlier this month, Israel and the Palestinian
Authority (PA) announced a new deal in which Israel
will sell the Palestinians </span><a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israel-PA-agree-on-water-deal-499575"><span>33
million cubic meters</span></a><span> of desalinated
Red Sea water per year, with 10 million cubic meters
transferred to the Gaza Strip and the rest to the West
Bank. </span></p>
<p><span>The deal masks the fact that Palestine is
undergoing a man-made, rather than natural, water
crisis. Government officials, the international
community, donor agencies, and even academic
literature portray Palestine’s lack of water resources
as a foregone conclusion – a result of the region’s
climatic conditions. What these narratives fail to
address is that Palestine’s water scarcity is a social
and political construct that obscures how Israel
entrenches its hegemony over water resources,
resulting in severe water inequality for Palestinians.</span></p>
<p><span>For decades, Israel has proposed technological
solutions to address this scarcity, such as
desalination plants and wastewater treatment and
reuse. International donors have played a major role
in reinforcing Israel’s approach. These solutions are
tied to the belief that science, technology, and
infrastructure will ensure that water is no longer a
source of contention, conflict, and even war. But
these technologically driven solutions disregard the
social, political, and cultural elements of water. </span></p>
<p><span>This is not to say that technological advances in
water are not essential for the development of
societies. Indeed, the harnessing of additional water
sources is needed to accommodate increasing
populations, particularly in the face of the effects
of climate change. But in the case of Israel and
Palestine such technologies have embedded political
motivations and uses. Indeed, we must ask: How does
Israel benefit from these technological advancements
while maintaining its coercive control over the water
of the West Bank, not to mention its responsibility
for the water crisis in the Gaza Strip? Can
Palestinians rely on the potential of technology to
increase their water availability under the context of
occupation? </span></p>
<p><span>This policy brief examines how, in fact, Israel’s
technological innovations operate in a context of
systematic theft of water resources, which weakens
Palestinian efforts to attain water rights and the
equitable allocation of water sources. It focuses
particularly on international donors’ role in shoring
up this situation, and offers recommendations on what
Palestinians can do to challenge the status quo and
obtain the water rights to which they are entitled. </span></p>
<h2><b>The Establishment of Israel’s Water Hegemony </b></h2>
<p><span>When Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip,
and Golan Heights in 1967, all the headwaters of the
Jordan River, in addition to West Bank groundwater,
came under its control. <a class="simple-footnote"
title="Israel’s expropriation of the Jordan River
and West Bank groundwater did not commence in 1967.
In the 1950s, for instance, Israel established the
National Water Carrier, which diverted 350 million
cubic meters of water annually from the Jordan River
to its coastal cities and the Naqab/Negev region.
Further, prior to 1967 Israel had been tapping into
a rich aquifer from the Israeli side of the Green
Line." id="return-note-6518-1" href="#note-6518-1"><sup>1</sup></a></span><span>
In 1982, the Israeli military transferred its control
of the West Bank’s water resources to </span><a
href="http://www.mekorot.co.il/eng/newsite/Pages/default.aspx"><span>Mekorot</span></a><span>,
Israel’s water company founded in 1937. </span></p>
<p><span>The 1993 Oslo Accords established a Joint Water
Committee (JWC) through which Israelis and
Palestinians coordinate management of water resources
in the West Bank. Yet the Accords allow Israel to
control Palestinian water infrastructure development
by sanctioning and freezing Palestinian water projects
while also intimidating Palestinians so as to
legitimize water projects in settlements, which are
illegal under international law. </span></p>
<p><span>Israel is currently using 85% of the shared water
resources of the West Bank, leaving Palestinians high
and dry. Not only does Israel exert hegemony over
access to West Bank resources, the Palestinian Water
Authority is completely dependent on Israel as the
main supplier of water, purchasing its stock from
Israel since the Oslo Accords. And contrary to Israeli
claims, the Palestinians are not receiving gratis
water additional to that which was allocated by </span><a
href="http://www.alhaq.org/publications/Water-For-One-People-Only.pdf"><span>Oslo</span></a><span>,
leaving the PA with no choice but to </span><a
href="http://www.pwa.ps/userfiles/file/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%81%201/WR%20STATUS%20Report-final%20draft%202014-04-01.pdf"><span>buy
more water</span></a><span> from Mekorot to meet the
increasing demand of its population. <a
class="simple-footnote" title="The Palestinian Water
Authority states that it purchases 55-57 million
cubic meters of water from Mekorot annually, and
utilizes 103 million cubic meters per year from the
basins (below the 118 million cubic meters per year
defined in the Oslo Accords – which in itself is
outdated and insufficient)." id="return-note-6518-2"
href="#note-6518-2"><sup>2</sup></a></span></p>
<span class="bctt-click-to-tweet"><span
class="bctt-ctt-text"><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=Israel%20uses%2085%25%20of%20the%20shared%20water%20resources%20of%20the%20West%20Bank%2C%20leaving%20Palestinians%20high%20and%20dry&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank">Israel uses 85% of the shared water
resources of the West Bank, leaving Palestinians
high and dry </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=Israel%20uses%2085%25%20of%20the%20shared%20water%20resources%20of%20the%20West%20Bank%2C%20leaving%20Palestinians%20high%20and%20dry&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" class="bctt-ctt-btn">Click To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>Moreover</span><b>, </b><span>Israel has since
the 1990s made huge investments in desalination and
wastewater treatment, enabling it to become a water
exporter to its water-scarce neighbors. Mekorot
manages 100 mega-projects throughout Israel, including
40 desalination facilities that provide 60 million
cubic meters of water per year. In addition, Israel’s
wastewater reclamation and treatment facilities allow
it to reuse 60% of its treated wastewater for
agricultural purposes. Israel outsources this
technical expertise to the developing world, and its
collaborations with water companies and governments of
Argentina, Cyprus, Uganda, Azerbaijan, and Portugal
generate billions of dollars.</span></p>
<p><span>With its drive for technical solutions that
ignore the politics of its appropriation of
Palestinian water, Israel’s agreements with the PA
have addressed water as a practical issue. The
established transfers, quotas, and swaps </span><a
href="http://www.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/39835"><span>fail
to adhere to the principles of international water
law</span></a><span>, which call for equitable water
allocations and the acknowledgment of Palestinian
water rights. After a six-year freeze in the JWC’s
work, cooperation resumed in January 2017. The freeze
was due to a conditional arrangement in which Israeli
settlement projects had to be approved for Palestinian
projects to be considered. According to </span><a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/jan-selby/what-hope-for-two-state-solution"><span>Jan
Selby</span></a><span>, between 1998 and 2010,
Palestinians gave approval to more than 100 Israeli
projects in the West Bank, but 97 donor-funded
projects are still awaiting Israeli approval. The
resumption of meetings and cooperation is far from
benign. While the new arrangement will allow
Palestinians to carry out the laying of pipes and
networks without JWC approval, it does the same for
Israel, meaning that Israel can develop its networks
for settlements without joint approval from the JWC.
Moreover, as Selby notes, “Though Palestinians will
now have autonomy to lay pipelines, what they won’t
have is any additional water to go in them – except
with Israeli consent.”</span></p>
<h2><b>How Donor Funding Shores Up Israel’s Status Quo</b></h2>
<p><span>The international donor community, in its
eagerness to establish evidence of the usefulness of
its million-dollar investments, exacerbates this
system of water inequality between Israel and
Palestine. Though donors’ approach has been to
increase water availability and protect the health of
people and the environment, under occupation this is
achieved through acquiescence to the status quo. Aid
is not supposed to be a long-term intervention, but
rather should provide support to local actors and
communities so they can develop sustainable resource
reclamation and ownership. Considering the
decades-long interventions and millions of dollars
channeled to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
in the water sector, the failure of donor communities
to enhance the living conditions of Palestinians
demonstrates how aid has harmed the recognition of
Palestinian rights.</span></p>
<p><span>Since the 1990s, international donor agencies
have increased investment in the Palestinian water
sector by constructing small- and large-scale
wastewater treatment plants, water networks, sewage
lines, and even a desalination plant in Gaza. Most of
these projects are conducted under the terms of the
Oslo Accords, which dictate that the Joint Water
Committee plans the projects before any money is given
to the PA. As such, the development of the water
sector outside the narrow scope of Oslo is restricted.
<a class="simple-footnote" title="In addition, Israel
has used the lack of wastewater infrastructure in
the West Bank to accuse Palestinians of polluting
streams and wadis. However, the JWC and the Israeli
Civil Administration have vetoed and thus stalled
the development of West Bank wastewater
infrastructure. Israeli settlements and their
industrial plant sewage also threaten the health of
Palestinians and destroy the environment. Israel
additionally capitalizes on this sewage, as it
treats it in its facilities but charges the PA for
the treatment. The treated wastewater is then used
for Israeli agriculture. See B’Tselem, “Foul Play:
Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank,”
2009." id="return-note-6518-3" href="#note-6518-3"><sup>3</sup></a></span></p>
<span class="bctt-click-to-tweet"><span
class="bctt-ctt-text"><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=The%20donor%20community%20exacerbates%20water%20inequality%20between%20Israel%20and%20Palestine&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank">The donor community exacerbates
water inequality between Israel and Palestine </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=The%20donor%20community%20exacerbates%20water%20inequality%20between%20Israel%20and%20Palestine&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" class="bctt-ctt-btn">Click To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>International investments have generally focused
on the construction of wastewater treatment plants in
the West Bank, with </span><a
href="http://www.arij.org/files/arijadmin/2016/SOER_2015_final.pdf"><span>increasing
donor interest in the development of six major
plants</span></a><span> in Nablus West, Jenin,
Jericho, Al-Bireh, Ramallah, and Tulkarm. Yet a
significant number of these projects do not come to
fruition. The Salfit wastewater treatment plant, for
example, secured funding in the 1990s but has never
been operational. The JWC has taken the project
through a labyrinth of bureaucracy, from changing its
approved location to making its operation conditional
on linking it to the Ariel settlement, one of the
largest settlement blocs in the West Bank that
channels its untreated wastewater into Palestinian
villages nearby. </span></p>
<p><span>The official framing of these projects obfuscates
underlying political issues. In 2015, for instance,
the European Union and the Palestinian Water Authority
(PWA) signed an agreement to construct a $20.5 million
wastewater treatment plant in Tubas Governorate in the
northeastern West Bank. The Head of the PWA, Mazin
Ghunaim, </span><a
href="http://eeas.europa.eu/archives/delegations/westbank/documents/news/2015/20151022_pr_sewerage_tubas_en.pdf"><span>said</span></a><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>Untreated wastewater remains a major challenge
in Palestine and has serious implications on health,
environment, and agriculture. This project will
significantly reduce health risks for the population
of North Tubas Governorate and the contamination of
the environment. </span><i><span>It will also allow
the re-use of treated wastewater in agriculture
hence conserving the limited groundwater resources
in Palestine</span></i><span>. (emphasis added)</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Such convictions of the need for wastewater
infrastructure to replace a “limited” resource is
echoed by many PA officials, donor agencies, and civil
society organizations.</span></p>
<p><span> While wastewater treatment is necessary, its
framing as an additional water source for agriculture
strengthens the notion of finding alternative means of
achieving water rights in Palestine. In other words,
the focus on the potential of wastewater rather than
Palestinians’ lack of water rights couches water as a
natural crisis that needs a technological solution –
rather than a man-made problem that deliberately
deprives Palestinians of a vital resource.</span></p>
<p><span>As for the Gaza Strip, over the last decade news
articles, reports, and international campaigns have
described its water scarcity as “</span><a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/gaza-looming-humanitarian-catastrophe-highlights-need-to-lift-israels-10-year-illegal-blockade/"><span>catastrophic</span></a><span>,”
</span><a
href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/11/22/water-situation-alarming-in-gaza"><span>“alarming,”</span></a><span>
and constituting a “</span><a
href="https://water.fanack.com/specials/gaza-water-crisis/why-water-crisis-in-gaza/"><span>humanitarian
crisis</span></a><span>.” Indeed, the population is
forced to make do with a main water source – a coastal
aquifer – that is 96% unfit for human consumption.
This is due to decades of over-extraction, sewage
contamination, and seawater intrusion. Israel’s
blockade and offensives have exponentially exacerbated
this problem and solidified water de-development, in
large part due to the destruction of vital wastewater
treatment plants, reservoirs, and power stations.</span></p>
<p><span>The international community as well as the PA
have since the 1990s framed Gaza’s water crisis as
solvable via a desalination plant. The Secretariat of
the Union for the Mediterranean, a body bringing
together 28 EU countries and 15 nations from the
southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, has
particularly pushed for the project. The </span><a
href="http://ufmsecretariat.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Gaza-Desalination-Project-Fact-Sheet-14-May-2012.pdf"><span>union
argues</span></a><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>With no alternative existing source of fresh
water, a large-scale desalination plant is an
absolute requirement to address the water deficit in
Gaza. The urgency for the Desalination Facility for
Gaza has increased with the rising level of
humanitarian crisis in Gaza related to inadequate
water resources with related impacts on human
health.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Such an approach strengthens the narrative of the
geographical and political separation of the Gaza
Strip from the West Bank, treating Gaza as a
standalone entity requiring its own energy-intensive
facility for water. These claims ignore the fact that
the water of the </span><span>West Bank – almost
entirely controlled by Israel – can provide relief to
Gaza. As Clemens Messerschmid, a German hydrologist
working in the Palestinian water sector, </span><a
href="http://thisweekinpalestine.com/bitter-water/"><span>contends</span></a><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>Under international water law, Gaza has a right
to a fair share of the Coastal Aquifer Basin. Gaza
cannot be separated from the rest of Palestine. Gaza
must be supplied from outside, just like New York,
London, Paris, or Munich. The water-rich West Bank
purchases ever-increasing amounts of water from
Mekorot Company (Israel), while Gaza should look
after itself? This is pure and 100-percent Israeli
long-standing logic and hydro-political rationale.
The historical Palestinian struggle for water
rights, for an “equitable and reasonable share of
trans-boundary water resources,” which is enshrined
in international water law, is abandoned under this
new paradigm. The Israeli Negev has a surplus of
water because the entire upper Jordan River is
transferred at Lake Tiberias into the National Water
Carrier, which passes Gaza at its doorstep. Huge
amounts of surplus water are literally flowing past
Gaza, while the Strip keeps drying up.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Similar to the wastewater treatment plants in the
West Bank, Gaza’s desalination plant, though
constructed, is not fully operational. UNICEF, after
decades of raising funds from the EU and others,
inaugurated the plant in January 2017. However, by the
end of February the plant </span><a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/largest-seawater-desalination-plant-opened-gaza"><span>was
only running on a partial basis</span></a><span>,
powered by emergency fuel. Desalination plants also
require continuous maintenance and spare parts and
materials, which is now facilitated under </span><span>the
Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism. Designed to “facilitate
urgently needed reconstruction,” the Mechanism made
the blockade its starting point, a move that Oxfam </span><a
href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/treading-water-worsening-water-crisis-and-gaza-reconstruction-mechanism"><span>criticized</span></a><span>
as normalizing the siege and “giving the appearance of
legitimizing an extensive control regime.” Moreover,
Oxfam</span> <span>reiterated the danger of
separating economic and technological solutions from
political conditions. </span></p>
<p><span>When Palestinian and international policymakers
flag desalination as the only solution to Gaza’s water
situation, this shores up the narrative that
technological advancement saves the day, without
addressing the underlying political realities and
restrictions on the ground.</span></p>
<p><span>It also exemplifies donors’ naïve approach to
water in Gaza and the West Bank. Essentially, these
projects fail to challenge – and thus, even
unwittingly, underwrite – Israel’s international law
violations, namely its continued occupation and
expropriation of Palestinian land and natural
resources. </span></p>
<p><span>Moreover, the main donors, namely the EU, the UK,
and the US, not only fund problematic projects, but
actively promote Israeli technology and scientific
advancement while ignoring the potential for
Palestinian water research. </span></p>
<h2><b>The Elision of Palestinians from Infrastructure,
Technology, and Scientific Collaboration</b></h2>
<p><span>With the Israeli occupation imposing military
laws on the access and control of essential resources
such as water, as well as tightening imports of basic
</span><a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/israel-uses-gas-enforce-palestinian-dependency-promote-normalization/"><span>fuel
and energy sources,</span></a><span> the Palestinian
Authority has not developed substantial
infrastructural development in the water sector for
decades, especially in Area C, which constitutes 60%
of the West Bank. The occupation’s “civil
administration” has the power to </span><a
href="https://d.docs.live.net/3bc2c24cbfa8d5cd/Al%20Shabaka/EWASH%20Press%20Release%20http:/www.ewash.org/sites/default/files/inoptfiles/160621%20-%20EWASH%20PR-%20Water%20Restrictions%20West%20Bank%20Result%20of%20Israeli%20Discriminatory%20Policies.pdf"><span>veto</span></a><span>
all infrastructure projects in Area C, with an
acceptance rate of only 1.5% between 2010 and 2014.
Most large water projects have been frozen due to
Israel’s condition of connecting settlements to such
projects, whose funds come from donor agencies to the
Palestinian people. Area C therefore remains a site of
de-development and is framed by the international
community as a space of humanitarian intervention
only. </span></p>
<p><span>Moreover, the international community’s close
collaboration with and admiration of Israel’s water
technology remains unconstrained and blind to the
de-development and sanctioning of the Palestinian
water sector. Recently, </span><a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/how-israel-uses-water-to-control-palestinian-life/"><span>the
EU rated Jerusalem</span></a><span> – occupied by
Israel in violation of international law – as one of
the top five cities in the world for water efficiency,
management, and innovation. This congratulates an
occupation regime for its work in a city where 36% of
its Palestinian residents are not even connected to
the Israeli water infrastructure and where </span><a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/economic-collapse-east-jerusalem-strategies-recovery/"><span>discriminatory
policies are implemented in order to empty the
metropolis of Palestinian inhabitants</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<span class="bctt-click-to-tweet"><span
class="bctt-ctt-text"><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=The%20apoliticization%20of%20water%20issues%20impedes%20the%20Palestinian%20quest%20for%20the%20right%20to%20self-determination&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank">The apoliticization of water issues
impedes the Palestinian quest for the right to
self-determination </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/S6zQ30dX0zN&text=The%20apoliticization%20of%20water%20issues%20impedes%20the%20Palestinian%20quest%20for%20the%20right%20to%20self-determination&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" class="bctt-ctt-btn">Click To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>In 2012, the European Commission and the Israeli
Ministry of Energy and Water Resources </span><a
href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=israel"><span>signed
a five-year memorandum of understanding</span></a><span>
to strengthen scientific cooperation, especially in
the field of water desalination and energy. The
British government is also pursuing such collaboration
with Israel. It </span><a
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/britain-launches-joint-israeli-palestinian-effort-to-tackle-water-and-health-issues"><span>recently
launched two platforms</span></a><span> that entail
such initiatives as placing Palestinian graduate
students in Israeli laboratories to build partnerships
and “solve serious water shortage and quality issues.”
Apart from the business-as-usual stance toward an
occupying force, the approach is problematic in that
it seeks to normalize the occupation given that
investment in scientific excellence is not considered
for Palestinian universities and research
institutions. Rather, all work benefits the
institutions of the occupier. </span></p>
<p><span>One seeming exception to this trend is through
the UK’s Department for International Development,
which supplied</span><span> $1.6 million to help
vulnerable rural farmers in Area C of the West Bank,
mainly Bedouin herders, support their families due to
the increased cost of agricultural production. The
program has allowed the farmers to rehabilitate water
cisterns, and has provided approximately 20 miles of
water conveyance systems; these developments have </span><a
href="https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/international-development/DFID%E2%80%99s-one-year-update-on-the-OPTs.pdf"><span>improved
irrigation efficiency</span></a><span>. Cisterns,
however, have limited storage capacity (70 cubic
meters/year) and rely on harvesting rainwater. As
such, their rehabilitation only alleviates, rather
than helps to solve, the occupation’s imposed water
shortage, and in a broader sense weakens Palestinian
efforts to achieve an equitable share of resources by
limiting more empowering</span> <span>water
development to small-scale solutions. </span></p>
<p><span>In sum, donors have continued a business-as-usual
approach that normalizes the occupation, engaging with
and funding research and scientific collaboration with
Israel and investing millions of dollars in water
infrastructure development commandeered by Israel.
Donors are even rehabilitating or rebuilding
infrastructure that Israeli forces destroy. Donors’
complicity in these destructive mechanisms contributes
to Palestinian complacency and dependency, as well as
an overall de-development of the Palestinian water
sector. An overwhelming apoliticization of water
issues impedes the Palestinian quest for the right to
self-determination. </span></p>
<h2><b>The Struggle for Palestinian Control over Water:
Ways Forward </b></h2>
<p><span>While the water situation may look bleak for
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there
are a number of strategies that Palestinians and their
allies are undertaking – and can develop further – to
reveal the political, man-made nature of water
inequality in the OPT and push for just solutions to
the crisis. </span></p>
<ul>
<li><span>Highlight how the donor-led water sector
development approach is distracting at best, and
harmful to Palestinian dignity, independence, and
overall success in reclaiming water rights at worst.
This will require campaigns and programs that
enhance awareness of the politics of water and
demand donor accountability to ensure Palestinian
water rights are met within the Palestinian agenda,
namely through addressing Israel’s rights violations
and occupation.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span>Demand that donor-funded water sector
development projects follow a comprehensive and
territorial contingency plan throughout the OPT.
Such projects should ensure that development – not
humanitarian aid – programs are implemented in a
participatory and transparent matter so that water
rights are made a top priority. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span>Strengthen Palestinian research institutions
and universities as hubs of knowledge on natural
resource politics and management, where appropriate
technologies and applied research are produced to
reflect the political, social, economic, and
cultural facets of natural resource management under
occupation, and develop a robust technical niche of
Palestinian water experts and engineers to support
local, community-led mobilization. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span>Demand greater transparency of PA authorities
to ensure they protect the Palestinian right to
natural resources by strengthening and actively
joining both local and international water rights
campaigns and providing a strong platform for civil
society organizations to represent Palestinian water
injustice nationally and internationally. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span>Build alliances with international and
transnational movements to further expose Israeli
water rights violations and develop a global action
campaign with indigenous communities that actively
oppose large-scale extractive industries and states.
</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span>Finally, underpinning all the above, it is vital
to </span><span>reintroduce and reframe the struggle
over access to and control of natural resources as
part of the Palestinian struggle for
self-determination and freedom. <br>
______________________________</span></p>
<ol>
<li id="note-6518-1">Israel’s expropriation of the
Jordan River and West Bank groundwater did not
commence in 1967. In the 1950s, for instance, Israel
established the National Water Carrier, which diverted
350 million cubic meters of water annually from the
Jordan River to its coastal cities and the Naqab/Negev
region. Further, prior to 1967 Israel had been tapping
into a rich aquifer from the Israeli side of the Green
Line. </li>
<li id="note-6518-2">The Palestinian Water Authority
states that it purchases 55-57 million cubic meters of
water from Mekorot annually, and utilizes 103 million
cubic meters per year from the basins (below the 118
million cubic meters per year defined in the Oslo
Accords – which in itself is outdated and
insufficient). </li>
<li id="note-6518-3"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In
addition, Israel has used the lack of wastewater
infrastructure in the West Bank to accuse
Palestinians of polluting streams and wadis.
However, the JWC and the Israeli Civil
Administration have vetoed and thus stalled the
development of West Bank wastewater infrastructure.
</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Israeli
settlements and their industrial plant sewage also
threaten the health of Palestinians and destroy the
environment</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.
</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Israel
additionally capitalizes on this sewage, as it
treats it in its facilities but charges the PA for
the treatment. The treated wastewater is then used
for Israeli agriculture. See B’Tselem, “Foul Play:
Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank,”
2009. </span></li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>