Israel water rationing

[wautd]

Link

Amnesty International has launched a scathing attack on Israel, accusing it of rationing Palestinians to a "trickle of water".

The human rights organisation says Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are being denied the right to adequate water supplies.

"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank," says the report's author, Donatella Rovera, "while the unlawful Israeli settlements receive virtually unlimited supplies."

It is claimed that total control of water supplies and discriminatory policies allow Israelis to use more than 80% of water from the Mountain Aquifer - the main source of water in the occupied West Bank - compared to only 20% going to Palestinians.

Palestinians are subject to the military orders controlling their use of water, while Jewish settlers in the West Bank are not. They answer to civilian Israeli law.

The inequitable arrangement allows Jewish settlements, illegal under international law, to maintain swimming pools, lush gardens and irrigated agriculture, while Palestinians are often subject to rationing and shortages, says the report.

Israel disputes the allegations.

"We reject any charge of discriminatory policy," Israeli prime ministerial spokesman Mark Regev told Sky News.

The quantity of water Israel takes from the Mountain Aquifer is now less than it was in 1967, he claims. Israelis consume 66% less fresh water now per head than they did then. Palestinians consume 16% more. Although that still leaves Israelis consuming 70% more fresh water than Palestinians per head.

Teacher and father-of-seven Bassam Qdah has built a concrete water tank to collect rain water in his home in the village of Shukba.

The Israeli army has told him it will be demolished because it was built without a permit.

"We have seven young children," he told Amnesty researchers, "and even if we use it sparingly, we still need quite a bit of water.

"Why would they want to demolish this small cistern? It does not bother anyone and is on my land."

The article above doesn't go into much into detail but basically the report from Amnesty International says

- The Palestinians only have access to 1 natural water basin, but only get a tiny part of it
- Available water for the Palestinians is beraly enough to get around the day, let alone watering your crops
- Israeli settlers hoard most of the water for themselves to maintain their swimming pools and lush gardens
- Palestinians do not get permits to drill for water wells
- illegaly built water wells get destroyed by the Israeli army

[Edi]

All part and parcel of the plan to expand Israeli lebensraum. They have been doing this for years and will try to label any criticism as anti-semitism.

[Grif]

Hey, so long Big Brother America is watching over Israel, I don't think they give a damn about what Amnesty International might say.

[Atlan]

Breaking news! Israel is being dicks! Film at eleven.

In other words, this doesn't surprise me at all. Seems to me that short of actively starting their own gas chambers the western world, and the US especially, will forgive the Israelies anything.

[Serafina]

Hey, so long Big Brother America is watching over Israel, I don't think they give a damn about what Amnesty International might say.

Or rather, as long as the USA don't give a damn about Amnesty International, they will continue to protect the violation of human rights.

[bobalot]

The Israelis also squat err... I mean "settle" on the most fertile lands as well. Their long term goal is to take all the fertile land and water and drive the remainder of the population into prison like Bantustans.

The reason you don't see the usual Israeli cock sucking apologists who usually turn up in every other IvP thread, is because this type of bullshit is indefensible. Even people in the U.S know this, which is why they employ the strategy of pretending not to know anything about it.

[Darth Yan]

Yep. When I confronted an Israeli apoligist about the settlements he completely ignored me. Can't say I'm shocked but I've learned to feel nothing but contempt for the Israelis.

[Sela]

Why isn't it (morally) acceptable to hate people for this?

[loomer]

There's no reason it isn't morally acceptable to hate for this, Sela, except for all the 'love, not hate' 'you'll live longer' 'living well is the best revenge' hippy crap. What they're doing here is about as immoral and unethical as it comes, so it's a-ok to hate the individuals approving this policy and putting it into force.

Just, you know, don't go hating every jew for it, and don't start ranting about zionist mind control.

[Serafina]

Morally, there is nothing wrong with despising this morally wrong behaviour.

However, if you are inquiring why it is politically unacceptable - well, the jews have 2000 years of abuse and interest to burn, and Isreal does it. If you are attacking Isreal too hard (and the bar is pretty low), then someone will play the "antisemite" card on you, which will usually lead to a Nazi-comparision.

Of course, both sides are doing horrible things in this conflict, so it IS unfair to pick on one and not the other.
However, as long as an attack on the state Israel is equal to an attack on Jews, this will be a problem.
And as long as these attacks can be so easily dismissed, this problem will not be resolved.

[Covenant]

The actions? Go ahead. The people/nation? Eh... Hate is a pretty strong word to apply to any single group--nobody has clean hands in the situation over there, and these actions are still unacceptable within a long-term political context and medievally barbaric in a human one. This is one of those profoundly fucked-up areas of the world that using the term hate to describe it puts you in an uncomfortable spot, and for good reason--people who oppose Israel as a state because of the humanitarian issues wouldn't be able to sit at the same table as the ones who want to obliterate the jews themselves, of which there are still plenty. By the same token, it's hard to defend the right for the state to exist without having to cohabitate the same realm as the crazy jewish fundamentalists and greedy mini-dictators who do things like these idiotic squatter colonies. And it also seems like an issue which stirs up a lot of feelings by people who have no personal vested interest in it either, so the whole debate is frought with epic levels of despicable behaviors and attitudes.

So saying hate is probably wrong, unless you really mean it, in which case you're probably still wrong to do it, because the most likely people to agree with you are going to be awful terrible people. It's safest to focus rage at the actions (water imperialism, land grabbing, indiscriminate retaliation) and attitudes seperately from just saying "I hate the Israelis." And it has nothing to do with being anti-semitic in my perspective, but being too one-sided in assigning blame for the immense amount of fuck-up going on.