French parliament report accuses Israel of water 'apartheid' in West Bank.

[Franco]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/french-parliament-report-accuses-israel-of-water-apartheid-in-west-bank-1.407685?localLinksEnabled=false

The report said that water has become "a weapon serving the new apartheid" and gave examples and statistics that ostensibly back this claim.

"Some 450,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there," the report said. "In times of drought, in contravention of international law, the settlers get priority for water."

 

[Voyageur]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/french-parliament-report-accuses-israel-of-water-apartheid-in-west-bank-1.407685?localLinksEnabled=false

The report said that water has become "a weapon serving the new apartheid" and gave examples and statistics that ostensibly back this claim.

"Some 450,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there," the report said. "In times of drought, in contravention of international law, the settlers get priority for water."

Hi Franco, nothing new here, why governments have not hammered home this question prior is, well, we know what it is. The above is relevant as it has always been.

There has been a bit written about water wars in Israel and elsewhere by a number of authors. Marq de Villiers book simply called 'Water' (P.231/232) points out that in Israel one forth of the country's water comes from the West Bank. It is in the form of aquifers. He says that after the Six Day war;

"all water resources in the area were centralized under the control of the military.

He goes on to say (Israel 1998):

...Palestinian wells may not exceed a depth of 140 meters, though Jewish wells could go down 800 meters.

Of the Gaza Aquifer he notes, it;

is thought to store a renewable 42 million cubic meters ayear. Wells and boreholes currently extract 45 million cubic meters, and over pumping currently lowers the water table by 15 centimeters a year. As water table falls, salt water from the Mediterranean and other nearby saline aquifers is introduced.
[...]
When, in 1967, Israel declared all water resources to be state owned, strict quotas were imposed on Palestinian water consumption. As a consequence, thousands of citrus trees were uprooted, cisterns demolished and natural springs and existing wells blocked. Israel water consumption in Gaza, on the other hand, is subsidized, encouraging overuse and misuse. In 1995 Gaza Palestinians paid $1.20 per cubic meter for water, while Israel settlers paid 10 cents.

He states that without the the West Bank water, Israel could not exist.

Water is a weapon, unconscionably, used to foster Apartheid.