Palestinian Solar Panels to Come Down

[Sea Skimmer]

Perhaps they also disliked the idea of the Israelis being able to turn their water and power on and of at-will. I have never heard of the Israelis actually -doing- that, in areas where they supply utilities to Palestinians, but from the Palestinian side I wouldn't be surprised if the idea had some resonance.

I'm sure they did fear that. However now instead... in some areas the Palestinians are actually rejecting calls for water restrictions to protect what groundwater is left in favor of pumping water specifically to deny it to the Israelis. I wouldn't be surprised if Israeli parties exist who are doing the same thing, and I know in some cases its occurred simply because of normal well usage, but the Israelis have a lot more resources to mitigate the consequences. Both sides farming industries may be destroyed in the medium term, 10-20 years kind of period, if nothing changes.

[Kanastrous]

Two words: slant drilling.

Assuming that one can do that, to reach water. Which seems reasonable to assume that one would.

Also, the Israelis might make a go of large-scale desalinization of Mediterranean water, for agriculture. Maybe. At any rate, they're much more likely to pull that off, than are the Palestinians.

[Irbis]

Actually the Israelis offered to hook up large areas of the west bank into power and water systems in years past; nobody took them up on it because they don't want to pay utilities fees to the Israelis.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but... First thing that comes to mind is 'pay with what, exactly'? Israel is First World country, West Bank is impoverished occupied territory, maybe they simply lack the ability to pay Israel's prices? After all, people from West Bank aren't some Hamas fanatics, they do deals with Israel daily, I'd hardly expect them to shoot their own foot if they had better option.

The way the ground water is being depleted and polluted and turning salty they may have have no choice in the long run. Even if you went back to the 1967 borders and took all the settlements out of the west bank, the ground water all still flows downhill into Israel by nature, and Israeli controls access to ocean water for desalination.

As for the water access, doesn't West Bank have had access to Jordan river, at least before that access was cut by Israel's military, and the water diverted to Israel proper? I'd need to do more research into this, but I was under impression the river might have solved their water problems, and they might refuse to pay as you said above because they feel they're being overcharged for something that should be their property.

Or maybe I just try too hard to find rationality where there is none.