Amnesty International: “Israel” denies Palestinians access to clean water

"Israel's" discriminatory policies continue towards the Palestinians as this time, Palestinians' access to water supply is far below the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The scene in Occupied Palestine is the following: Illegal "Israeli" settlements have provided themselves with large swimming pools while the surrounding Palestinian land is parched and crying out for water.

Settlers have huge swimming pools while their Palestinian neighbors can't get enough water to feed their dying livestock...

Accordingly, the human-rights group Amnesty International has issued a critical report on Tuesday charging that "Israel" prevents Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip from receiving adequate clean and safe water supplies while allowing "unlawful Jewish settlers" of the West Bank almost unlimited supplies.

According to Amnesty, on a per-capita basis, "Israelis" use four times as much water as Palestinians whose water consumption at best reaches 70 liters per capita a day - as "Israel" is pumping more than its share of water from an aquifer it controls in the West Bank.

The report also says that in some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians are surviving on as little as 20 liters of water per capita a day, which is below humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemics.

In contrast, water consumption by "Israeli" settlers in the West Bank is 300 liters per capita a day.

"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", said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's researcher on "Israel" and the OPT (occupied Palestinian territory).

The 112-page report says in contrast to "Israeli" settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law and have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools; West Bank Palestinians are not allowed to dig wells to fulfill their need and struggle even to meet their domestic water needs.

There are also reports suggesting that "Israeli" authorities destroy Palestinian's cisterns and impound their water tankers.

The human rights group has also accused "Israel" of causing a "water crisis" in the Gaza Strip by continuing its crippling blockade on the territory, adding that 90-95 per cent of the region's water supply is now unfit for human consumption because of "Israel's" three-week offensive against the coastal territory, which damaged water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations.

At the end of the report, Donatella Rovera said "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,"

adding that "Israel" must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.