Israel's war by water

Observations on Palestine

By Ron Taylor Published 24 July 2008

Eight tankers are parked on the rough ground at the filling point. The drivers look anxiously at a metal box attached to a large water-pipe that carries a trickle of water into the nearest tanker. Dr Hassan of the Palestinian Hydrology Group explains: "They are looking at the pressure gauge. Pressure is very low and the drivers are worried. No water deliveries, no pay." This is the Dhahiriya water filling point, a few miles south of Hebron in the West Bank. Many nearby Palestinian communities - the "unconnected villages" - rely on this water.

"When the pressure is good," says Dr Hassan, "a tanker can be filled in 20 to 30 minutes. But now it takes about three hours. At this rate it will take two months to supply all the people on this list. But new names are being added every day." There is no immediate solution.

Israel controls 80 per cent of West Bank groundwater, an arrangement that would have been addressed under the Oslo peace process. Because the process unravelled, little has changed: Palestinians bear the brunt of the area's water shortages.

Under Oslo, the West Bank was divided into three areas, with 60 per cent of it, known as Area C, under full Israeli military control. About 70,000 Palestinians, mainly farmers and shepherds, live in this area, eking out a precarious living in circumstances that deteriorate year on year.

Perhaps the worst affected part of the West Bank is the area around Hebron, the West Bank's largest city. The disastrous 2007-2008 wet season produced only 13 per cent of the expected annual average rainfall. By March this year it was clear that for the communities living in Area C, to the south of the city, survival would be a major achievement.

In Area C there are many villages and hamlets that, unlike the neighbouring Israeli settlements, are not connected to the water network. The people here rely on springs, wells and collecting surface-water in cisterns, but it is not enough. Connection to the mains would make a huge difference to life in these rural communities. But there is a snag. They need permission to build any kind of structure and even if their documentation is in order, the final say lies with the Israel Defence Forces civil administration. A recent UN report records that between 2000 and 2007, 94 per cent of building permit applications submitted by Palestinians living in Area C were denied.

One of the scores of unconnected villages in the south Hebron hills is at-Tuwani. A village leader, Hafez, is clearly worried. "The settlements are connected to the network but when we want to build new cisterns the Israelis won't give us permission. If we build them the army will knock them down."

The villagers suspect that this is part of Israel's plan of "silent transfer" - if life here becomes too difficult for the Palestinians, they will leave. The many settlements around Hebron have no trouble gaining access to the water network. Mekorot, the Israeli national water company, will connect them for the same price as other domestic customers in Israel - four shekels per cubic metre (pcm). The settlement of Otniel, visible from the Dhahiriya filling point, enjoys this luxury.

In the unconnected villages, tankered water costs 15-17 shekels pcm. Remote communities have to pay up to 50 shekels pcm. For people whose main incomes derive from subsistence farming, the costs are impossible to meet. Hafez warns: "People here cannot pay these prices and without emergency aid they will have to abandon their villages, leaving the land for the settlers. This is what the Israelis want."

View the discussion thread.

27 comments

Tue, 2008-07-29 16:50 — gnuneo

amihai: and i would very strongly suggest YOU read the following, written by an independent hydrologist who has lived and studied in Israel for 11 years, and finds faults on both sides. Your article is somewhat biassed, and based far more on 'official proclamations' than reality on the ground.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961667.html

Mon, 2008-07-28 16:53 — AnnaGooms

When is the West going to acknowledge just what is happening in Palestine and insist on justice for the Palestinian people.Denial of human rights and ethnic-cleansing goes on day after day and we still pretend that Israel wants peace!

Fri, 2008-07-25 17:15 — Oriol

The Occupation is ethnic cleansing by deprival of the utmost necessary elements for life: shelter, soil, water. This is structural violence at its best. Thanks for the article!

Thu, 2008-08-07 00:22 — gnuneo

Amihai: sorry, but you still haven't gotten it yet, have you? Naturally, i blame only myself, let me try to make it clearer for you.

In what way does your article matter? What exact point are you trying to make here with that repost?

are you claiming that *i* am in fact an anti-semite? That seems to be what you are saying, because i fail to see how in any other way your repost answers the questions i raised?!

(i am making the assumption your repost WAS an attempt on discussion, and not just meaningless spam on here.)

let us look at the possible reasoning here, one conclusion is that i *am* anti-Semitic, but i am totally unaware of it, that my desire for a peaceful, stable and equitable end to the Palestine/Israel conflict is in fact hiding a churning desire to massacre all Jews in the world, that presumably only requires a 'Manchurian Candidate' type trigger to turn me into a raving Islamist fanatic.

mmmhm, we've kinda dealt with this before.

a second possible reason for this repost, is that you think it actually answers my question, that you didn't repost it to accuse *me* of anti-Semitism, but because you thought that tying together 'Islamic Fundamentalism' and 'British Leftism', and claiming the latter is a-twining itself to the former, especially combined with the miracle accusation "anti-Semitism!", is somehow going to make me change my mind that Palestinians deserve the same rights and freedoms as everyone else - including the Israelis.

is that the intention Amihai? To try to make my position untenable because some other unsavoury characters might agree with me?

read the next bit carefully:

"Logic 101: The Fallacy of Guilt by Association
Alex Knapp | Tuesday, February 12, 2008

As an educational service here at OTB, I thought it might be useful to elucidate one of the more common logical fallacies: the fallacy of guilt-by-association. This is also sometimes known as the “Bad Company” fallacy.

The typical structure of an argument that incorporates the guilt-by-association fallacy is something along the lines of:

Person X supports idea I.
Person X is bad (or believes bad things).
Therefore, idea I is bad.

A more real world example of this might be:

Social security is a state funded old age pension.
Nazis supported state funded old age pensions.
Therefore, social security is bad.

Obviously, this argument is ridiculous, because whether a particular person or group supports an idea is irrelevant to the actual merits of the proposal.

Sometimes, this argument goes even further to suggest that support for an idea agreed to by a bad person or group means that anyone who supports the idea is a part of that group or agrees with their ideas. An example of this might be:

The Nazi Party supported building a large, national highway system.
President Eisenhower supported building a large, national highway system.
Therefore, President Eisenhower was a Nazi.

The flaw in the reasoning is clear at this point, too. Acceptance of a particular idea does not mean that one is a member of every group that accepts that idea.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/02/logic_101_the_fallacy_...

so is this the level that Judaism now takes its adherents to in logic/structure/thought? Were i to be your Rabbi, i would be *very* embarrassed indeed.

btw, you *have* got it now, right? *I* don't CARE if some anti-Semites agree with my position, because it is my OWN values that i follow! And some little thing you might not know, many openly and HISTORICALLY anti-Jewish groups are now supporting Israel - yes, many of the Neo-Nazi European movements support Israel's Occupation of Palestine! They still hate Jews, they still want you all wiped out to make for some completely mythical (frankly - completely insane) "pure race", which really begs the question - what is it do they believe supporting Israel's current policies will achieve, for their *own ends* of annihilating Global Judaism?

food for thought, but that is by the by, and probably not really something you will be comfortable trying to think about, sorry.

so, just to recap, are you saying that:

1. i am a secret al Qa'ida Manchurian Candidate (along with most of those who criticise Israel in any shape or form), or
2. i shouldn't agree with any position whatsoever that any bad person whatsoever might be accused of agreeing with?

and do try not to employ too many logical fallacies in your arguments please, they really undermine any points you may be attempting to make. :)

if i have actually missed your point for the repost, do please explain,

your humble servant.

(actually, i don't expect a reply, or at most a terrible, wounding and discussion-killing "A-S" accusation. Really, its absolutely appalling the depths that Zionist education has fallen to.)

Mon, 2008-08-11 14:23 — Amihai

Yes, as I said earlier, I realize, it is very difficult to look at the mirror and see a picture that is not very pleasant, one of an anti-Jewish racist.

Amihai (my people lives on)

Jerusalem, Israel's capital city and that of the Jewish people.

Never Again!

Mon, 2008-08-11 18:01 — AnnaGooms

I, too, have been to Auschwitz and I will never forget. I have been to Majdanek and Yad Vashem as well. Again I will never forget. In the 1970s and !980s I was a leading activist in the Anti-Nazi League. I am also the writer of the article about water in Palestine and I am appalled at Israel's behaviour. But I am certainly not an anti-semite.

Ron Taylor

Wed, 2008-07-30 10:04 — Amihai

Interesting, Amira Hass, a product of the Communist Party, is considered non-biassed. How interesting indeed and to what extent some would go to drag Israel's name through the mud, strictly because it is after all the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Wed, 2008-07-30 10:58 — Madav Katz

Hello I'm back. Sorry I haven't been in touch for a while. I am writing this from the secure unit in the Royal Free Hospital in London where I've always lived. The fact I can admit this is real progress. I'm not better though. Oh no. I still can't get away from my cod cod English. Oh what a shame a shame indeed. Legitimate criticism of Israel is a blood libel. Cuckoo.

Fri, 2008-08-15 18:49 — Amihai

So, this is the depth of your ability to appreciate the subject at hand, one word? I hope it is not representative of a whole class of "progressive", "enlightened" and even "socialists", or is it?