THE FACTS ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN WATER SUPPLY
By Mark Langfan
European Parliament head, Martin Schulz, admitted that he hadn't checked the facts before he castigated Israel - from the Knesset podium - for denying Palestinian Arabs water. Here they are.
The State of Israel Water Authority (IWA) released a PowerPoint report entitled “The Water Issue Between Israel and the Palestinians.” (the “IWA Report”) in 2012..
The IWA Report debunks the BDS (boycott-divest-sanction) myth that “Israel is stealing West Bank water from the Palestinians,”
In fact, the IWA Report provides documentary and graphic evidence that the Palestinians have ““stolen”” water from Israel in direct, and constant “breach” of the Oslo Accords.
The IWA Report is full of clear and colorful graphics which illustrate many of the "West Bank" Water issues. For example, the graphic below shows how the Tel Aviv Yarkon-Taninim coastal aquifer is recharged by rainfall in the "\West Bank" (Judea and Samaria).
Water in Israel (IWA)
The IWA Report’s main conclusions are:
Israel supplies to the Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria 46 million cubic meters (MCM) a year more water than Israel is obligated to under the Oslo Accords.
Israel supplies to the Palestinian Arabs, as a whole, 52 MCM a year more water than Israel is obligated to under the Oslo accords.
In direct breach of the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Arabs have drilled over 300 unauthorized wells in the "West Bank". (This “off the books” extra water, drawn by the Palestinian Authority, is in addition to the extra 52 MCM of water Israel has allocated to the Palestinian Arabs above the required Oslo Accords allotment.)
The Palestinian Arabs do not treat their sewage water which is contaminating the Western Samarian aquifer that topographically runs westward down the western half of the Samarian "West Bank" Mountains to the Tel Aviv coastal plain aquifers. (See this reporter’s graphic compilation.)
In direct breach of the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority is not developing any new sources of water, either through sewage treatment or desalination.
Recently the BESA Institute released a report by the internationally renowned, Hebrew University water-expert Dr. Haim Gvirtzman entitled “The Israeli-Palestinian Water conflict: An Israeli Perspective” which asserted that “despite there being a $500 million international Donor fund available” for the building of sewage treatment plants, “The Palestinians refuse to build sewage treatment plants.”
The Gvirtzman BESA Report is an excellent and thorough explanatory paper that fills in the IWA Report, and clearly elaborates many of the underlying "West Bank" water issues.
The two reports are a “must read” for anyone trying to counter the BDS “water” blood-libel against Israel.
This article was first posted on Israel National News on March 22, 2012. The situation has not changed.
Mark Langfan
The writer, who specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.
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