Under international law the West Bank's water resources - the Mountain Aquifer and the Jordan river basin - are joint resources to be shared by Israel and Palestine on the principles of equitable and reasonable use.
However, Yehezkel Lein - a researcher with B'Tselem, the Israel centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories -- says that since occupying the West Bank in 1967, Israel has exploited its water resources, which it had no access to before the war, to benefit Israel and its illegal settlements over the Palestinians.
Once Israel had conquered the West Bank, he says, it immediately confiscated almost all the wells, banned the drilling of new ones and put quotas on how much water could be drawn from existing ones. The amount of water allocated to Palestinians was capped at 1967 levels and has remained unchanged des pite the growth in the Palestinian population.
Israel now uses 79% of the Mountain Aquifer and all of the Jordan river basin, bar a small quantity that it sells to Palestinians in the Gaza strip. The result, as the discrepancy in water consumption shows, is neither equitable nor reasonable.
Many commentators say Israel invaded and occupied the West Bank and the water-rich Syrian Golan Heights in 1967 precisely because it wanted access to the water, and add that this is why Israel is so reluctant to give back those territories in a land-for-peace deal. Jad Issac, director of the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, says more than half of the water Israel uses comes from the territories occupied in 1967.
More recently, Israel has threat ened to bomb pumping stations in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese continue with plans to divert parts of the Wazzani river, which originates in Lebanese territory. Oil may make the headlines in the Middle East, but water is the resource that Middle Eastern countries fight over most of the time.
Jessica McCallin
The Sunday Herald
http://www.sundayherald.com
However, Yehezkel Lein - a researcher with B'Tselem, the Israel centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories -- says that since occupying the West Bank in 1967, Israel has exploited its water resources, which it had no access to before the war, to benefit Israel and its illegal settlements over the Palestinians.
Once Israel had conquered the West Bank, he says, it immediately confiscated almost all the wells, banned the drilling of new ones and put quotas on how much water could be drawn from existing ones. The amount of water allocated to Palestinians was capped at 1967 levels and has remained unchanged des pite the growth in the Palestinian population.
Israel now uses 79% of the Mountain Aquifer and all of the Jordan river basin, bar a small quantity that it sells to Palestinians in the Gaza strip. The result, as the discrepancy in water consumption shows, is neither equitable nor reasonable.
Many commentators say Israel invaded and occupied the West Bank and the water-rich Syrian Golan Heights in 1967 precisely because it wanted access to the water, and add that this is why Israel is so reluctant to give back those territories in a land-for-peace deal. Jad Issac, director of the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, says more than half of the water Israel uses comes from the territories occupied in 1967.
More recently, Israel has threat ened to bomb pumping stations in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese continue with plans to divert parts of the Wazzani river, which originates in Lebanese territory. Oil may make the headlines in the Middle East, but water is the resource that Middle Eastern countries fight over most of the time.
Jessica McCallin
The Sunday Herald
http://www.sundayherald.com