Israel 'cuts Palestinian water'

[subsuelo]

Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, Amnesty International says.
In a report, the human rights group says Israeli water restrictions discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
It says that in Gaza, Israel's blockade has brought the water and sewage system to "crisis point".
...

At the same time, the report claims, Israeli settlers are enjoying swimming pools and green gardens.
"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," Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said.
"Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8327188.stm">BBC - read more

[Scurrilous]

1. Palestinian farmers struggle with water crisis

<snip>

"Once a proud grower of bananas, Abdullah Naji has been harvesting little more than dust in recent years. He blames his ill-fortune both on drought and on Israel's water policies.

"Every day I pray for water," says Naji, 40.

But his village of Auja, in the heart of the West Bank's traditionally fertile Jordan Valley, is bone dry. Even the goats cannot find food amid the rocks and dust.

Naji gave up his banana plantation two years ago and converted to herding sheep.

"At least now he can complain to his animals," a neighbour jokes.

But even feeding the livestock has become a problem, as it is in much of the Middle East which is suffering its worst sustained drought in decades.

Auja villagers and their animals have survived in recent months thanks to fodder donated by the Oxfam aid group, which has also been delivering storage tanks and water to impoverished communities in the area.

"They, on the other hand," Naji says, pointing in the direction of a nearby Israeli settlement, "have all the water they want."

A canal runs alongside the village, but locals say it has not channelled any water since May. The spring that used to serve thousands of people in the area throughout the year has dried up.

Aid groups blame this on the construction of a new well that serves the 175 Israelis who make up the Yitav settlement.

Jewish settlements boast well-irrigated farms, orchards and vineyards, in sharp contrast to the dusty Palestinian villages and the surrounding rocky desert dotted with dirt-poor Bedouin encampments.

Amnesty International says in a report issued on Tuesday that discriminatory Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories are the root cause of the striking disparity in access to water between Palestinians and Israelis."

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[excess_3]

3. is this a payment dispute? .nt

[ensho]

4. also from an aljazeera article

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091026132714361238.html


-snip-

Amnesty said between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry.

-snip-

Adding to an already dire situation, Israel's war on Gaza early this year left water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations severely damaged.

The Amnesty report said Gaza's coastal aquifer, its sole fresh water resource, has been polluted by infiltration of seawater and raw sewage and degraded by over-extraction.

The water situation in Gaza had now reached a "crisis point," with 90 to 95 per cent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption, Rovera said.
-snip-
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sigh

[shira]

5. Water Authority blasts Amnesty on report

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256557968809&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It's not paranoia when they (AI, HRW, UNHRC,etc..) are really out to get Israel.