It is likely that some of you might know what this post talks about, but I find it quite interesting and I believe it could be an issue we can discuss about.
The Israeli-Palestinian water issue
In class we talked about this article from The Independent. Israel is being accused of denying the regions of West Bank and Gaza the access to usable water. They say there is a complete discriminatory control that gives Israelis access to four times the water that Palestinians consume.
An Amnesty International report, made by Donatella Rovera, explains how this situation goes. This report mentions that between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in rural communities have no access to running water, and blames the Israeli military to "often" prevent Palestinians from accessing rainwater, by destroying water-harvesting cisterns, prohibiting construction of water wells, and even confiscating water tankers.
The report also mentions the unequal distribution of water coming from the mountain aquifer (which is the principal groundwater resource for both communities). At the same time, it talks about the donors and how they do not manage correctly the funding water-related projects in these territories. All these issues, have some sort of relationship to the Oslo accord in the mid-nineties which we will talk about in further posts. But in a few words, the Oslo agreement established a highly unequal distribution, but the author of this amnesty says that this situation has gone way beyond the establishments of the Oslo agreement.
By the other hand; what is Israel's position in all this issue? Well, Israel is indeed defending itself with certain aspects, such as the Oslo agreement. They say that they respect what this agreement established and they blame the wrong distribution of water by the Palestinians according the the Israel's water authority.
Whatever the truth may be, it is real that Palestinians are going through a very rough situation without the right access to usable water. So, what could be a solution for this issue? If the Israeli government really is denying access, what could the Palestinians do?
Please, feel free to give your opinion, of what a solution could be.
