March 22nd is World Water Day

The Alliance Stands out--and Stands Up--for Water Justice in Palestine

As The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine gathered on March 22 to mark World Water Day 2017, prospects for water justice were as frigid as the weather.  

In Standing Rock, North Dakota  ‘water protectors’ were informed that oil would be coursing through the Dakota Access Pipeline that very week.  In Flint, Michigan, residents had just learned that it would be years before they would be able to drink unfiltered tap water.  

Thousands of miles away in the Gaza Strip, the general manager of the water utility announced that now more than 97 percent of the Strip’s water table is unfit for domestic use by Gaza’s 2 million residents.  Doctors meanwhile reported a steep increase in the number of ‘blue babies’ because the water was so high in chloride and nitrates, and of patients admitted to hospital with kidney problems after being forced to drink polluted water.  

Things are not much better in the Occupied West Bank, where Israel has this year been ratcheting up its destruction of the water infrastructure serving Palestinian farming communities.  

With the swift approach of the year 2020 – when the UN has predicted that the Gaza Strip will be ‘uninhabitable’ - we must ratchet up our efforts to work for water justice, connecting the struggles here and in Palestine.  Please join us!

Spring seized by settlers focal point of Nabi Saleh protest joined by US vets

Palestinians with Israeli and international peace activists are attacked by armed settlers and Israeli soliders:

"Among those who participated in the protest were members of a delegation of US Veterans, who wrote an extended account of their experience at the protest. They observed that the Israeli colonial militia members appeared to be most focused on attacking women, children, and people with cameras, while leaving the larger adult male veterans alone."

Non-violent Demonstrators March to Stolen Water Well in Nabi Saleh, Where Israeli Colonizers Attack Them

WHY 100 MASSACHUSETTS GROUPS OPPOSE THE ANTI-BOYCOTT BILL

Despite its progressive-sounding title, 100 organizations in Massachusetts oppose An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in State Contracts.  Among the reasons for this opposition  are the following:

The bill is unnecessary.  S.1689 /H.1685, An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in State Contracts, purports to combat discrimination.  But Massachusetts already has robust laws to prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity or sexual orientation, laws vigorously enforced by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD).  The bill adds no new categories of protected individuals. Massachusetts already requires contractors applying for a state contract to certify under pain of perjury that they will not discriminate on these grounds.  There is no need to strengthen what already exists.   

The bill rests upon a fundamental misconception of BDS as a form of discrimination on the basis of national origin. The bill's proponents, including the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), think the bill applies to BDS because they regard BDS as a form of national origin discrimination.As JCRC claims in its Action Alert, “Singling out and refusing to deal with a business owner based on an immutable characteristic – national origin in the BDS context – is a form of discrimination. “  In fact, BDS has nothing to do with national origin discrimination.

BDS targets are not chosen because of their national origin – which cannot change – but because of what they do – which can change. For example, Caterpillar, G4S, Veolia, and Hewlett-Packard (not even Israeli-owned businesses) were chosen because they profit from the Israeli occupation, and SodaStream (which is Israeli) because it expropriates Palestinian resources. Even a future BDS campaign targeting all Israeli business would not be due to some immutable characteristic of such businesses, but in order to change Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, and would end once that policy changed. The claim that BDS is national origin discrimination is simply not true.

The bill is unconstitutional, if applied to BDS. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that peaceful boycott activity to “bring about political, social, or economic change” is a form of speech protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  Other Supreme Court cases have ruled that states cannot require persons to give up their constitutional rights as a condition of receiving a state contract.  So if the bill is applied as JCRC intends to prevent persons engaging in BDS from contracting with the state, it is unconstitutional.

In summary, anybody who cherishes free speech- no matter whether they approve or disapprove of BDS - should reject this bill.   

Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine      Jewish Voice for Peace Boston      

                                                    Massachusetts Peace Action

Again, and again, Israel uses water as a weapon

The demolitions of water supply infrastructure are severe and unrelenting:

"Israel, which has controlled most water sources in the West Bank since it occupied it nearly fifty years ago, disregards the severe water shortage suffered by Palestinians and promotes projects that can alleviate it only when they involve improvements to settlement infrastructure. At the same time, Israel demolishes every water supply system that Palestinians try to erect themselves in Area C, subjecting them to intolerable living conditions in order to force them out of the area."

Israel demolishes infrastructure, leaving Palestinian farmers without water for domestic and agricultural needs

Mustafa al-Fakir, a 46-year-old married father of ten, talked about the demolition and its effect on the life of his family in a video in this article.