Tapping into Israeli water know-how

PEOPLE like Al Gafoor are so blinded by hatred for anything Israeli, Jewish or Zionist they can’t see the wood for the trees (“Apartheid water solution not for us”, Cape Argus, January 4), yet he is not averse to trotting out halftruths and generalisations about Israel being an apartheid state, which is why the Palestinians “are being deprived of their fundamental human rights”.

The computer he uses probably has a Pentium chip invented in Israel and the mobile he uses daily features Israeli technology.

Gafoor, I surmise from his letter, would rather die of thirst than drink water from Israeli desalinisation plants which could have been set up in Cape Town long before the drought set in.

The ageing pipe infrastructure in Gaza was never meant to cater for the thousands of Gazanians. It is under the control of the PA and it is they who should be replacing the piping. The Gazanians have also been responsible for digging illegal wells.

Gafoor can access a report by an independent Swiss researcher, Lauro Burkart, a graduate of the Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, whose thesis, “The Politicisation of the Oslo Water Agreement,” paints an accurate picture of the scarcity of water in Gaza.

If the City of Cape Town decides to use the Israeli desalinisation technology, Gafoor will be one of the first to benefit from the “apartheid water solution”. He reminds me of a traditional figure in Jewish folklore, the “Rebbe (rabbi) Meg”, whose motto was do as I say, don’t do as I do.

BRIAN JOSSELOWITZ Milnerton