Palestinians’ water woes conveniently ignored

IN RODNEY Mazinter’s letter (“Israeli know-how the solution to our water woes”, Weekend Argus, 27 August , he suggests Israeli desalination efforts could benefit water-deficient African countries and that Israel is “helping Palestinians in the West Bank”.

His premise about the usefulness of this technology is unfortunately sabotaged by a blatant disregard for truth about the Israeli occupation’s deliberate water restrictions in what has become annexed Palestinian lands still under military control. The evidence is mounting: Al Jazeera records real life experiences of Palestinians whose water flows continue to be cut off or reduced. The seawater desalination plant in Gaza is funded by the EU and not Israel and will assist only some 75 000 Palestinians in drought-stricken Gaza Strip.

Israel controls water rights and incidents of restrictions are well documented.The illegal and growing Israeli settlements suffer fewer water restrictions as they sit on rich aquifers in the West Bank. Why is this, when Israelis consume five times more water than Palestinians?Excuses from Israeli sources for damaged water pipes or broken pumps in Palestinian towns might be valid, but in the end, only serve to promote a politics of erasure, to make life difficult, not peaceful, for the occupied.

In June, Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah said Israel was “waging a water war… and wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs”.

Answers lie in well investigated stories, for instance, in Israeli newspaper, Hareetz, about this illegal annexation of resources.

It’s easy for an outside country to employ water “diplomacy” among African countries in dire need. But charity starts at home and such propaganda of Israeli goodness miserably fails when one looks at the needs of the occupied neighbour.