Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., October 30, 2009 Cheshvan 12, 5770 | | Israel Time: 01:19 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
Comment / Claims Israel deprives Palestinians of water are groundless
By Israel Harel
Tags: Water supply 

The blitz continues: After the Human Rights Watch and Goldstone reports (which were only the two most prominent among many, including some homemade ones), Amnesty's rocket, "Troubled Waters," has landed. The gist: Israel is drying out the Palestinians.

Any libel involving discrimination against Palestinians immediately makes headlines and is repeatedly broadcast in Israel more than anywhere, usually without fact-checking and sometimes without even a request for a comment from the authorities. The news editor knows, for example, that there are around 300,000 settlers and not 450,000 (if only there were) - guzzling rogues that they are of the Palestinians' water (some may say the blood). The motive for the Israeli media's extensive coverage of lies that besmirch their country is not very different from the motive of the foreign organizations themselves: undermining Israel's moral standing in its own eyes and those of the world.

Since military efforts have failed to damage Israelis' motivation to sustain the Jewish state, those who want to destroy the country have focused recently on trying to demonize that state, to make life in it unbearable (by directing their lies at the Jews' soft underbelly or soft heart: sensitivity to injustice), and to shake the Zionist sense of justice. Not only did we come from far away (some add in the service of colonialism) to plunder the Palestinians' land, but even after driving most of them out, we continue carrying out war crimes (in Gaza) and drying up (Suha Arafat even said poisoning) their wells (in Judea and Samaria). Jews are among those gleefully jumping onto this bandwagon of anti-Israel psychological warfare, including many whose wages are paid by foreign governments and organizations like Amnesty.
Advertisement
Amnesty's accusations on the water issue are groundless. Most of the settlements get their water piped in by the Mekorot water company from inside the Green Line not, as the organization claims, from wells in Judea and Samaria that belong to the Palestinians. And the Palestinians do not "have to make do" with 70 liters a day ("or less") per capita. According to the Oslo 2 accords they signed, they are entitled to 23.6 million cubic meters a year - but in fact they pump, with Israeli consent, 70 million cubic meters. On top of this, the Israeli Civil Administration supplies, over and above the Oslo requirements, water to villages that really are suffering from a shortage. A key question the Israeli media has left unasked is why doesn't Israel prevent the wildcat pumping in violation of the Oslo agreement that is both draining and polluting (along with the sewage that seeps through) the mountain aquifer?

Amnesty and the rest of the pro-Palestinians do not ask where the millions of dollars that flowed to the Palestinian Authority for the construction of an efficient and economical water system have vanished, or where the money is that the World Bank and other aid agencies have provided for a sewage system that would protect the environment and prevent the seepage of wastewater into the aquifers.

Another Amnesty lie: On the Jewish side, the report says, agriculture is flourishing while the Palestinians' fields are dry. The truth is that Jewish agriculture only existed in the Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip. Yields there reached world records and provided a handsome living for those who worked the soil, before the blade of the uprooting fell on them. Most Jews in Judea and Samaria - and this is actually one of the arguments used against them - work outside the settlements and return only at night. One reason for this is that apart from some orchards here and there that are irrigated by rainwater, there is no income-providing agriculture in Judea and Samaria in the classical sense because of the hilly terrain. -These facts are certainly known to the Israelis who work as researchers for these organizations. But the end, or the wages, justify the means.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Rabin's legacy
In video message, Obama to tell Rabin memorial that U.S.-Israel bond is unbreakable
U.S. anti-Semitism
New ADL poll shows anti-Semitic views in America are at a historic low
  1.   Israel Harel, stop lying! Come to my house and see for yourself 04:55  |  Ramzi Jaber 29/10/09
  2.   you stole our land. you stole our water. 04:58  |  sabera 29/10/09
  3.   How about comparisons with Syria and Jordan? 04:59  |  Rob 29/10/09
  4.   this non-sence 05:17  |  GA 29/10/09
  5.   "Zionist sense of justice" LOL. That`s a good one! 06:24  |  p. 29/10/09
  6.   I agree this time 06:46  |  Angry Arab 29/10/09
  7.   There is still some moral left in Israel? Didn`t know that! 07:00  |  Kris Lazar 29/10/09
  8.   back of the envelope water calculation 07:04  |  duvidl 29/10/09
  9.   Amnesty is a respected organization 07:26  |  Proud Israeli 29/10/09
  10.   Israel is stealing the water 08:26  |  Cynic #2 29/10/09
  11.   Stop with the stupid arguments 08:27  |  Justice 29/10/09
  12.   Without firing a shot (sort off),Israel is being 08:31  |  ZORRO 29/10/09
  13.   To GA #3 08:34  |  Proud Israeli 29/10/09
  14.   Without firing a shot -- PART 2 08:42  |  Zorro 29/10/09
  15.   Is there also a left-winger allowed to regularly write comments.. 08:50  |  Swiss (Dino) 29/10/09
  16.   oh for crying out loud!!! 09:08  |  rm 29/10/09
  17.   Non sence #3? 09:22  |  Joel 29/10/09
  18.   Let them drink soda pop and eat cake ! 10:02  |  Josiah J. Ben David 29/10/09
  19.   Ramzi Jaber get a job!! 10:53  |  Michelle 29/10/09
  20.   Bethlehem`s water supply 10:59  |  Palestinian Brit 29/10/09
  21.   Palestinian farmers disagree 11:06  |  Fred Schlomka 29/10/09
  22.   East Jerusalem 11:07  |  Palestinian Brit 29/10/09
  23.   some water figures 11:11  |  robins 29/10/09
  24.   Ignorance 11:15  |  Fred Schlomka 29/10/09
  25.   Groundless????? WATERLESS!!! 11:23  |  John Spear 29/10/09
  26.   12 criminal and proud and damned for all eternity! 11:28  |  An enraged bystander 29/10/09
  27.   Re: back of the envelope calculation 12:00  |  Richard 29/10/09
  28.   70 million cubic meters 12:06  |  AB 29/10/09
  29.   # 9 proud israeli 12:11  |  Axel 29/10/09
  30.   Comparative water usage 12:21  |  Richard 29/10/09
  31.   Ramzi, what is your deffinition of Palestine? 12:32  |  tziv 29/10/09
  32.   Settlement agriculture 12:37  |  Brit 29/10/09
  33.   Israel stealing Sudan`s water 12:45  |  Am Nasty 29/10/09
  34.   denial denial and more denial 16:00  |  rm 29/10/09
  35.   Groundless? 16:01  |  LEE M. 29/10/09
  36.   Mendacity 17:19  |  Peter 29/10/09
  37.   15-- Title: Is there also a left-winger allowed to regularly wri 19:04  |  JimUSA 29/10/09
  38.   water 19:43  |  recher 29/10/09
  39.   Absolutely correct Harel.The Pals propaganda machine is blowing 21:26  |  ks 29/10/09
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
23:11 LAPD puts Jewish institutions on alert after synagogue shooting
22:53 ADL voices 'deep concern' over L.A. synagogue shooting
00:31 Shalit activists to launch new campaign if talks remain stalled
20:51 Obama to tell Rabin memorial: U.S.-Israel alliance is unbreakable
22:23 U.S. court: Would-be Israel spy to remain in jail before trial
22:02 One person killed in suspected Mob 'work accident' in Bat Yam
00:39 Study: Birthright alumni less likely to marry out
21:52 TV ROUND-UP: 2 wounded in L.A. synagogue shooting; Rabin remembered
21:46 At Rabin memorial, Netanyahu vows to fight political violence
00:51 Gaydamak once worked for French intelligence, former minister says
17:37 Qaida-linked group in Lebanon claims rocket attack on Israel
21:31 Turkey envoy: Good ties with Israel part of our global aspirations
14:28 Are there 20,000 or 20,000,000 refugees in Israel?
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved