Trump envoy mediates water deal between Israel and Palestinians
The agreement is part of a pre-existing plan to link the Dead Sea and the Red Sea by pipes in Jordan
JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy said Thursday Israel would supply the Palestinians with millions of cubic meters of water annually, as Washington seeks to build confidence for fresh negotiations.
Jason Greenblatt hailed an “important step forward” in a wider regional water deal, as Israel announced it would provide more than 32 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinians annually.
“Water is a precious commodity in the Middle East. The US welcomes the agreement reached by the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel which will allow for the sale of up to 33 million cubic meters of water from Israel to the PA,” Greenblatt said at a signing ceremony in Jerusalem.
Israel’s Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi and Mazin Ghunaim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, also attended.
Palestinians suffer from water shortages and say the unequal distribution of water resources favors Israel.
The deal announced Thursday is part of a wider water project involving the Red and Dead Seas to be developed over the next five years, but the Palestinians are likely to begin receiving water from it before then, Hanegbi said.
It came after Greenblatt helped broker an agreement between the two sides on the price and quantities of water, as well as where the connection points will be.
The deal is supposed to ease water scarcity in the Palestinian territories, including in the Gaza Strip, where more than 95 percent of water is undrinkable.
Ghunaim said 22 million cubic meters would go to the Israelioccupied West Bank, while a further 10 million would go to Gaza.
“This will reduce the suffering of the Palestinian people which has been worsened by the beginning of summer and the crises that they are living through,” he said.
The deal is part of a pre-existing plan to link the Dead Sea and the Red Sea by pipes in Jordan.
The plan would also seek to reverse the disappearing of the Dead Sea, which sinks by about a meter a year according to Israeli officials.
The primary cause is overuse of water upstream.
In 2013, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians signed a memorandum of understanding on the water project that included plans to build a desalination plant at the Red Sea.
Hanegbi said the wider agreement was the “most ambitious” in the history of the region.
“It will supply (a) significant amount of water to Jordan, to Israel and to the Palestinians.”
Greenblatt is seeking to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, stalled since talks collapsed in 2014, with Trump saying he wants to reach the “ultimate deal.”
There is however heavy skepticism over whether meaningful talks can be held now, with 82-year-old Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas unpopular and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading what is seen as the most right-wing government in his country’s history.
Israel freezes housing plan after settlers object Meanwhile in an unrelated development, Israeli ministers have frozen a plan to allow for the construction of thousands of Palestinian homes in a West Bank city, a statement said Thursday, a move that followed Israeli settlers’ objections.
Israel’s security Cabinet took the decision in a meeting Wednesday, the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, despite ministers having previously approved the project.
The plan is for Qalqilya, said to be the most densely populated Palestinian city in the West Bank with more than 40,000 residents and surrounded by Israel’s separation wall on three sides.
It is located in the northern West Bank, near the Israeli cities of Kfar Saba and Raanana.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and military officials favor the plan as part of a so-called “carrot-and-stick” policy to reward Palestinian cities Israeli security forces view as calm in recent years.
Lieberman has disputed reports that it would allow for up to 14,000 housing units, saying it would be a maximum of 6,100.
The plan would extend the city to allow for the new homes into the part of the West Bank known as Area C, under complete Israeli control.
Some 60 percent of the West Bank is part of Area C and Palestinians face near impossible odds in gaining construction permits there.
Israeli settlement building has meanwhile continued in Area C, though settler leaders argue it has advanced too slowly and harshly criticized the Qalqilya plan.
Under Wednesday’s decision, Israel’s full Cabinet will hold another discussion on the issue, though with a broader scope.
“The Cabinet will discuss a global construction policy and Area C planning in 10 days,” the statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel’s current government is seen as the most right-wing in the country’s history, with key ministers opposing the creation of a Palestinian state and advocating settlement construction.
Blackouts in Gaza
Gaza’s power distribution company says supplies to the territory’s 2 million residents have dropped to unprecedented lows, with blackouts lasting for more than 24 hours.
While the Palestinian enclave needs at least 400 megawatts of power a day, only 70 are available since Gaza’s power plant shut down late Wednesday.
Diesel fuel from neighboring Egypt had kept the station running at half capacity since June 21, but deliveries were interrupted after a deadly attack on Egyptian soldiers last week near the border.
Israel, the main provider of power to Gaza, has cut shipments at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian leader is trying to put pressure on Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The militant group seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ forces a decade ago.