Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Head of Water Authority Welcomes French Report on Israel’s “Water Apartheid”

RAMALLAH, January 17, 2012 (WAFA) - Head of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), Shaddad Attili, welcomed the report produced by the French parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, describing Israel’s water policies in the occupied Palestinian Territory as a form of apartheid, Tuesday said a press release by PWA.

It said that a recent report by the French Parliament critical of Israel’s discriminatory water policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian Territory should put the international community on note regarding the acute water crisis facing Palestinians,

“This report by the French Parliament clearly highlights water as a major target of Israel’s occupation. It implicates water in the politics of occupation, and draws attention to the different ways in which Israel’s discriminatory water policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory constitute a form of water apartheid,” Attili said.

He added, “This is not the first report to focus on the impact of Israel’s occupation and its systematic denial of basic Palestinian water rights. There are many other reports in circulation, produced by the World Bank, the UN and various international NGO’s, which paint a similar picture in the occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Attili said that growing awareness of Israel’s discriminatory water policies needed to be translated into international pressure on Israel to end its water apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory.

“Israel controls all the water resources in the occupied West Bank. It exploits these resources for near exclusive Israeli use, allocating a mere fraction of the available water supply to Palestinians. While Israelis enjoy some of the highest water consumption rates in the world, Palestinians continue to face a series of crippling water shortages artificially engineered by Israel as a matter of policy,” Attili added.

He said: “Israel denies Palestinians their rightful share of water. It also uses water as a weapon to target vulnerable Palestinian communities. This includes its systematic demolition of Palestinian rainwater harvesting cisterns and wells used as a means to forcibly displace Palestinian communities who depend on them for their basic water needs.' ' The number of demolitions continues to increase, with at least 25 Palestinian wells and 32 Palestinian cisterns demolished in 2011 alone.”

“The situation on the ground speaks for itself, no matter how much the government of Israel tries to put a different spin on it. The international community has a moral and legal imperative to change this situation.”

Attili concluded by reinforcing the importance of water in efforts to achieve peace: “Palestinians need to be able to access and control our rightful share of water in accordance with international law. The Oslo Accords did not achieve this, while the Joint Water Committee has mainly served to reinforce the status quo of occupation by giving Israel effective veto power over all Palestinian water projects.”

“Without water, and without ensuring Palestinian water rights, there can be no viable or sovereign Palestinian state,” he said.


Palestine News & Info Agency - WAFA

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