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Reageer (0)A water convoy to Qarawat Beni Zayed, Ramallah District
In protest of Israeli Water Authority and Mekorot policies
Arriving in the village at 1:15 PM
From “Halamish” entrance to village cluster: 1:00 PM
From Ramallah: Al Manara Circle at 12:00 noon
From Jerusalem: Liberty Bell Park (Gan Ha'Paamon) at 12:00 noon
From Tel Aviv: Reading parking lot (next to the bus depot) at 12:00 noon
The five villages in Beni Zayed Municipality have been made to be dependent upon purchasing water from Mekorot and each year Mekorot has been reducing their supply during the summer months. This past April water supply from Mekorot to these 15,000 people was less than half than what it was 2 years ago.
Join us as we send a message to the Israeli Water Authority and Mekorot that water supply to all Palestinian communities, including communities located over the Western Aquifer and in Area C must increase during the summer months.
For further details, media opportunities, interview requests, and RSVP please contact:
Sadiq Arar (secretary of Qarawat Beni Zayed council): 059-931695, 02-2862511
Yuval (Anarchists Against the Wall): 050-7336117
Susan (LifeSource): 059-8318346
For Immediate Release
August 7th 2009: As water supply to Palestinian communities across the West Bank dwindles, activists are organizing a convoy of water to reach thirsty communities in the Ramallah Governorate.
Taps have been running dry – no water for drinking, for washing, for livestock or agriculture. In the villages of Qarawat Beni Zayed, Kufr 'Ayn, Deir Ghassani, Beitrima and Nabi Salah many residents have not had water from their taps since March 15.
The villages, situated north-west of Ramallah, are inhabited by about 15,000 people, who, at the height of the scorching summer season, receive a rationed amount of water amounting to 37 liters a day per person – almost one half of the average consumed by Palestinians in the West Bank (66 liters a day per person), ONE SIXTH of the average provided to Jewish settlements in Israel and the occupied West Bank (235 liters a day).
Some Palestinians in South Hebron and the Jordan Valley are experiencing an even direr situation, as Israel is preventing them from developing a piped water distribution network due to permitting restrictions posed by the Civil Administration in Area C, which are applied even to basic water and sanitation infrastructure. Palestinian fields are drying up. Meanwhile, Palestinian villagers see beyond the settlement fences and walls that their illegal colonizers are enjoying a bountiful supply.
Ahmad Audy Arrar, a member of Qarawat Bani Zeid council and an organizer of the upcoming water convoy summarizes the situation: “I would like to say that, the water problem here has been increasing every year, it is not this summer only. Mekarot company is decreasing the amount of water to our village every summer, and this year is the worse so far. We are thirsty. Women are taking empty coke bottles to fill up from a local polluted spring for washing. The people are turning their anger to us at the municipality, they know it’s not because of us that they are suffering, but we are their link. The Palestinian Water Authority have visited, the Palestinian Hydrology Group, the West Bank Water Department, with their engineers. We welcome the support now of all the activists in solidarity with us, Israelis and internationals, other Palestinian communities and organizations, working with us to draw attention to this most serious problem. Without water there is no life. We hope for water in Bani Zeid, we hope for water for our families and friends in Hebron and the Jordan Valley, and we hope for water for all of Palestine.”
Recently this situation has been receiving a lot of attention. The Palestinian Water Authority, the West Bank Water Department, the Palestinian Hydrology Group, LifeSource, B’tselem, Israeli Peace Activists and Israeli and international media have visited the village of Qarawat Bani Zayed and Bani Zayed municipality and heard of this difficult situation. Many inhabitants of this village have to purchase water from water tanks at high prices – up to NIS 40 to 1 cubic metre of water, ten times the price of water available through the water network. Water from Aboud spring that gave the communities unlimited water before the occupation has been obstructed from reaching the local Palestinian communities since Mekorot, the Israeli water supply company, has created its own infrastructure here and only allows a small portion of its water to arrive to the village.
These communities are now dependent upon purchasing water from Mekorot and each year Mekorot has been reducing their supply during the summer months. This past April their water supply from Mekorot was less than half than what it was 2 years ago.
Since the occupation in 1967, Israel has taken control over all of the water sources in the West Bank (while some private ownership rights to wells were respected), using them for Israeli clients, including settlers. The Mountain Aquifer is considered a joint (Palestinian-Israeli) underground water reservoir that Israel is permitted to use – but not in the current inequitable way: 86% of the water is taken by Israel and the remaining 14% is allocated to 2.5 million Palestinian inhabitants. In the Jordan Valley alone, it is estimated that Israel is pumping 60 million cubic meters of water a year primarily for agricultural products exported to Europe, while total Palestinian domestic, industrial and agricultural consumption for the whole of the West Bank is limited to 190 million cubic meters, and many Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley are made to go without.
227,500 people in 220 villages are not connected to the water supply grid. An additional 190,000 people have only partial water supply from the water network.
Supplying enough water to the Palestinian civilians – for their homes, and for their industrial and agricultural needs, is not a favour or act of compassion. This is a legal and moral obligation whose violation is a crime under international human rights and humanitarian law treaties, ratified by the State of Israel. Our water convoy on August 7th aims to put international pressure on Israel to end this ongoing deprivation.
Qarawat Beni Zayed Council, Kufr 'Ein Council, Deir Gassani Council, Beitrima Council, Nabi Salah Council, Beni Zayed Municipality
With support from:
House of Water & Environment, LifeSource, Medical Relief Society, Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON), Palestinian Farmers Union, Palestinian Hydrology Group, Palestinian Institute for Water Issues Training, Palestinian Peasants Union, Union of Agricultural Work Committees
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), International Solidarity Movement, International Women's Peace Service, Michigan Peace Team
Alternative Information Center, Anarchists Against the Wall, Bat Shalom, Coalition of Women for Peace, Combatants for Peace, Communist Party of Israel, Gush Shalom, Hadash Party, Humans Without Borders, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, The Israeli Committee Against Torture, Machsom Watch, Meretz Party, New Profile, Physicians for Human Rights, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights, Taayush-Arab-Jewish Partnership, Tarabut-Hithabrut, Sadaqa-Reut, Yesh Gvul, Young Communist League of Israel
For more information contact:
Sadiq Arar (secretary of Qarawat Beni Zayed council): 059-931695, 02-2862511
Yuval (Anarchists Against the Wall): 050-7336117
Susan (LifeSource): 059-8318346
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Susan Koppelman
LifeSource project organizer
www.lifesource.ps
+972 (0) 598318346
+972 (0) 525493215
LIFESOURCE is a Palestinian-led collective of people who recognize it is crucial to address the current and unfolding regional water crisis immediately – on the humanitarian level, the environmental level, and the political level. We are launching a campaign of popular research, popular education and popular action, with the goal of motivating communities to engage in their own analysis of information and direct their own courses of learning and action.
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Eng. Luna P. Siniora
Project Manager
NECC-ICC
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10-07-2009
Financial support required in the face of humanitarian crisis in the West Bank
Ever since the Israeli water company (Mekorot) took over the Palestinian spring of Abud and initiated a new cruel system of water dispersal the villages of Bnei Zid, Kufr'ain, Beit Rima, Dir Rsani and Nabi Salah (northwest of Ramallah) have been suffering from a severe lack of water.
The villages, with a population of some 20,000, are now receiving less than one fifth the amount of water required for basic survival.
Due to the current policy some lucky families are enjoying sporadic access to water, for just a few hours a week while thousands have not had a single drop for more than three months. Villagers are forced to buy water from water trucks at excessive rates, which many cannot afford. Therefore, children are forced to pull water from contaminated wells, or to beg for water bottles. Many are forced to leave their homes due to the crisis.
This is a humanitarian crisis which is hidden from the Israelis and the International community. A major campaign is being launched these days, and will try to tackle the water policy by means of legal and political action, and by popular protest.
A call has been made to raise funds in order to supply the poorest families with drinking water.
The required assistance is urgent, and meant to somewhat ease the villagers' suffering in the coming weeks.
All donations will be welcomed.
Checks can be made out to:
Shomrei Mishpat - Rabbis for Human Rights
9 Harekhavim St.
Jerusalem 94362
Please specify that the donation is for the Water Aid fund.
Bank deposits can also be made to:
Hapoalim Bank, Rekhavia branch, number 782, account number: 153380
Please inform Rabbis for Human Rights of having made the transfer at 02-6482757
Bron: Rabbis for Human Rights
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Rapporten, programma´s, verdragen
Rapport B´Tselem: slechte waterzuivering West Bank
07-07-2009
Lees ook:
Report: Most West Bank wastewater untreated, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) - June 28, 2009
The wastewater of 2 million of the 2.8 million people living in Jerusalem and the West Bank is not treated, according to a new report. The human rights group B'Tselem on Sunday released its report "Foul Play: Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank." While the organization laid much of the blame on Israel, it said the Palestinians also were at fault. The report said the failure to treat the Israeli and Palestinian wastewater could result in the permanent contamination of the mountain aquifer, a main source of water for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Lees het volledige rapport en/of de samenvatting.
New B'Tselem report on the neglect of wastewater treatment in the West Bank
B'Tselem's latest report 'Foul Play: Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank', deals with the failure to properly treat sewage from Israeli settlements, East Jerusalem, and Palestinian towns and villages. Most of this wastewater is not treated according to standards applying in Israel, or indeed treated at all. Of the 2.8 million people currently living in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the wastewater of two million of them is not treated. About one-third of settlements wastewater flows as raw sewage into West Bank streams. Year after year, more than 10 million cubic meters of Jerusalem s untreated wastewater flows eastward into Nahal Kidron Basin, creating what the Ministry of Environmental Protection classifies as the largest sewage nuisance in Israel. In addition, more than ninety percent of Palestinian wastewater is not treated at all.
The chronic neglect of wastewater treatment creates health and environmental hazards for many Palestinian communities. In addition, this pollution endangers the Mountain Aquifer, the most important and highest-quality water source for Israelis and Palestinians alike. The report gives concrete recommendations and calls on all parties, regardless of their position on various Israeli-Palestinian political disputes, to work to avoid this potential environmental catastrophe.
Bron: B´Tselem
Copyright © 2004-2005 Een Ander Joods Geluid::Design: NRJ Webdesign
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Norman G. Finkelstein
Israel leaves the inhabitants of the West bank thirsty
While our spigots let the water run full blast…
19.07.2009 | Rabbis For Human Rights
Israel leaves the inhabitants of the West bank thirsty
Join us in a protest against the water shortages caused by the occupation
Dry water taps – no water for drinking or bathing, many months during the summer heat. Since March this is the situation of many families in the villages Qarawat Bani Zayed, Kufr ‘Ein, Ramani & Nabi Salah, 15,000 people. In the same time, these Palestinian villagers can see beyond the settlements’ fences a different situation. They see green lawns and sprinklers irrigating the whole day. A similar situation exsists in many other parts of the West Bank.
We hereby call activists to join and donate money to the protest campaign
Checques can be made to Rabbis For Human Rights,
9 Harechavim St. Jerusalem, 93462, Israel.
Or to account No.153380 in Bank Hapoalim branch 782, Aza, Jerusalem.
N.B.: Mention for water campaign
In a later announcement we shall give details about the water convoy to Qarawat Bani Zayed that will take place on 07/08/09
Further activities will consist of demonstrations, petitions, letters, appeals to MKs, embassies and intl. organizations.
Details and comments: Yuval 050-7336117, Yakov 050-5733276, 09-7670801 email: manor12 AT zahav.net.il
Background: Since the occupation in 1967, Israel took control over most of the water sources in the West Bank, and uses them for Israeli clients and especially for settlers. The mountain acquifer is considered a joint (Palestinian-Israeli) water reservoir that Israel is permitted to use – but not in the current way when 80% of the water is taken by Israel and the remaining 20% are allocated to the millions of Palestinian inhabitants. Other water sources, as in the Jordan valley, are used almost exclusively by Israelis and only meager quantities are left for the usage of Palestinians. The Palestinian inhabitants of the south Hebron area having a serious problem of water shortage as well. In Israel and the settlements, the mean per capita water consumption for domestic and municipal usage is 235 lites per day, and in the occupied territories it is 66 litres per day only. 227,500 people in 220 villages are not connected to the water system. An additional 190,000 people have only partial water supply.
The Oslo accords reaffirmed the Israeli control over the water supply and pumping. The Palestinians assumed that it was a temporary agreement, and according to the time table that was established then, by May 1999 an independent Palestinian state would be established with control over its natural resources. The continuing water shortage increases the anger and frustration the Palestinians feel.
The small quantity of water supplied to the Palestinians is not distributed equally. As the water runs through the pipes the quantity reduces and as a home is situated higher up the pressure diminishes, and as a result the highest situated homes do not receive supply at all.
The village Qarawat Bani Zayed, situated on a mountain slope, is an example to this difficult situation. Lately Israeli peace activists visited this village and heard of this difficult situation. Many inhabitants of this village have to purchase water from water tanks at high prices – up to NIS 40 to 1 cubic metre of water, ten times its price in Israel or the settlements. Abud spring that gave them water before the occupation was caught by Mekorot, the Israeli water supply company, and only a small portion of its water currently arrives at the village.
Supplying enough water to the Palestinian civilians – for their homes, public and agricultural needs is not a favour or act of compassion. This is a legal and moral obligation whose violation is a serious crime against international law.
Organisations participating: Anarchists against the fence, Bat Shalom, Gush Shalom, The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, The Israeli Committee Against Torture, The Alternative Information Centre, Yesh Gvul, Sadaqa-Reut, Coalition of Women for Peace, Physicians for Human Rights.
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