Israel is depriving millions of Palestinians of access to a regular supply of clean water while stripping their land of water resources in an apparent act of pillage.
A Palestinian study entitled: “Water in the Arab-Israeli Conflict” published by the Palestinian National Information Center revealed that the Zionist movement sent in 1850 experts to study the water resources in Palestine.
During the First Zionist Congress in 1897 Theodore Herzl said: “We laid the foundations of the Jewish state with its northern borders that extend to the Litani River.”
In 1941 Ben-Gurion said: “We must remember that the waters of the Jordan and the Litani rivers must be included within our borders.”
The Zionist movement also worked to include the Upper Galilee region and its water sources during the partition project in 1947.
Attacks on Palestinian waters
Since the establishment of the Israeli entity in 1948 the occupation authorities have sought to control the largest possible amount of water resources in Palestine.
According to a study entitled: “Israeli Projects and Plans for Investing Water Resources Since 1948” Israel started draining the Lake Houla between 1950-1957 and implementing the “Smith” plan or the seven-year plan from 1953-1960 which aimed to raise the amount of water produced from 810 million cubic meters in 1953 to 1730 million cubic meters in 1960.
In 1964 the Israeli authorities implemented the “National Water Carrier” project which aimed to transfer the waters of the Jordan River to the Negev desert which constitutes more than 50% of the area of historical Palestine under the pretext of greening the desert.
Following the 1967 aggression and the occupation of the remaining area of historic Palestine the Israeli occupation authorities imposed full control over Palestinian water resources and issued a number of military orders restricting the Palestinian use of their water resources and maintaining water networks.
The occupation authorities have also established hundreds of settlements on Palestinian lands depriving Palestinians of access to their water sources.
Water crisis 20 years after Oslo
Along with other interim measures the Oslo Accords promised to temporarily fix the problems of water management and access until a final status agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians was reached.
The Oslo I Accord in 1993 included a provision on Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in the management of water resources. This was followed two years later by Oslo II which recognized the Palestinians’ right to water and promised them greater access to the region’s water resources.
However the Oslo Accords did not lead to greater Palestinian access to water but in fact formalized an existing discriminatory arrangement.
Today this results in a lack of water for Palestinians versus a plentiful supply for Israelis including those living in settlements established in contravention of international humanitarian law throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In fact the more than half a million Israeli settlers in the West Bank consume approximately six times more water than the Palestinian population of 2.6 million.
