Amnesty: Israel Is Denying Palestinians Water

Report slams Israel's 'total domination' of water supplies

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 27, 2009 3:58 AM CDT

(Newser) – Israel is guzzling the region's water supply to keep its farmland lush and its lawns green while many Palestinians struggle to get the bare minimum for life, according to an Amnesty International report. The report accuses Israel of using its "total control" over water supplies to discriminate against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the BBC reports.

Many Palestinians in the West Bank have no access to running water and the Israeli military prevents them from digging wells and accessing rainwater, the report charges. Israeli settlers, meanwhile, enjoy virtually unrestricted access to water despite a prolonged drought. Israeli officials call the Amnesty report "biased and incorrect" and accuse the Palestinians of mismanaging their water resources.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

A Bedouin Arab follows his camels down an almost dry river bed, where he waters his herd with polluted argicultural run-off near Jericho in the West Bank. (Getty Images)

Palestinian farmer Abu Mohammed, 75, uses a donkey to pull a plow to cultivate his field in the West Bank village of Lubban on the outskirts of Nablus. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

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Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor quality, subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford. - Donatella Rovera,
author of the Amnesty report

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 14 comments

Stuart

Oct 28, 2009 8:23 AM CDT

What a load of BS - 75% of the Mandate of Palestine was given to the Arabs who chose to call their new country Jordan. The remaining 25% of their homeland was to be for the Jews, but the Arabs were and are greedy and wanted it all. So they are fighting and killing for the remaining 25%. Look it up - San Remo Conference of 1925 - these are facts, not Arab propaganda.

Snowleopard

Oct 27, 2009 12:48 PM CDT

Isreal's doing whatever it can to force the palestines out. They now control 95% of what once was palestine.

OWLWOMANXXXX

Oct 27, 2009 12:39 PM CDT

I knew it...........I knew it..........I knew it

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Israel • water • Gaza • Amnesty International • West Bank • Israel and Palestinians • water restrictions • Jewish settlers

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Amnesty: Israel Is Denying Palestinians Water