A New Campaign Launches from Palestine

In late 2016, Al Haq launched a new campaign to expose how Israel exploits natural resources in Palestine--and how this sustains the Occupation:

"The campaign highlights how the Israeli occupying forces have taken control of the water, land, gas and oil reserves, quarries and Dead Sea minerals, allowing it to sustain and expand the settlements, internationally recognized and condemned as illegal.

To pressure Israel and complicit corporations to stop exploiting natural resources which rightfully belong in the hands of the Palestinian people, Al-Haq calls for international, national and local sanctions that target individuals and companies involved in illegal activity, or forms of trade that support illegal activity."

Al Haq Launches "Facts on the Ground" How Natural Resources fuel the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Israeli Army Routinely Demolishes Communal Water Cisterns and Water Wells

In 2011 alone, the army destroyed 89 water structures in the West Bank, including 21 wells, 34 cisterns, and many small fixed water tanks that have been given to rural households: 

"The Israeli government uses such denial of water to trigger people displacement, particularly in areas slated for colonial expansion, especially since these communities are mostly farmers, who depend on water for their livelihoods. Cutting off Palestinian communities from their water resources usually precedes dispossession of land for new colonial projects." 

Although this article was posted in 2014, we have put it on our blog because of its comprehensive overview and graphic (Palestinian Springs Affected by Settler Activity, March 2012. See below.) As you can imagine, the situation is much worse three years later.

Israel’s Water Genocide

Water used as a Weapon in a Land Grab

The seizure of a natural spring in the Bethlehem area would deny Palestinians access to this much needed source of water; Israel will also continue construction of the Separation Wall which would turn the local village "into a prison."

"Residents of al-Walaja have lost over three-quarters of their land since Israel was established in 1948, when most of the village’s residents became refugees. During Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, 50 percent of al-Walaja’s lands were annexed to the Jerusalem municipality."

Israel to move Bethlehem-area checkpoint deeper into Palestinian territory

The World Bank Weighs in on Gaza

The bank’s local specialist warns that the U.N.’s prediction that Gaza will be unfit for people by 2020: 

“Irreversible damage has already been done to parts of the Coastal Aquifer in the Gaza Strip as a result of overpumping and seawater seepage, according to a senior water-sanitation specialist at the World Bank.

The financial institution is one of many local and international organizations that have been warning against, and trying to prevent, such an occurrence over the past 20 years.”

Gaza Water Crisis Has Caused Irreversible Damage, World Bank Warns

 

Palestinian children collect water during a five-day truce in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 14, 2014. Reuters