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Last update - 13:32 28/10/2009
Amnesty International: Israel curbing water to Palestinians
By Reuters
Tags: Israel Water, Israel News 

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a report published Tuesday that Israeli restrictions prevented Palestinians from receiving enough water in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The report said Israel's daily water consumption per capita was four times higher than that in the Palestinian territories.

"Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality, subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford," said Amnesty official Donatella Rovera.
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A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Amnesty's statement that Israel was depriving the Palestinians of water as "preposterous."

Israel says it has met its obligations under the 1993 Oslo agreement while Palestinians have failed to meet their own requirements to recycle water and were not distributing water efficiently.

"Israel supplied Palestinians 20.8 million cubic liters above and beyond what it is obliged to do under the water agreement," said Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev.

Israel, itself facing unprecedented water shortages and rising tariffs, controls much of the West Bank's supplies, pumping from an aquifer that bridges Israel and the territory.

Israel sells some water back to the Palestinians under quotas agreed in the Oslo accords that rights groups say have not been increased in line with population growth.

The report said Gaza's coastal aquifer, its sole fresh water resource, had been polluted by infiltration of seawater and raw sewage and degraded by over-extraction.

Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the Gaza Strip, an area taken over by the Islamist Hamas movement, which ousted Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in a bloody 2007 coup.

Israel's water authority called the report "biased and incorrect, at the very least" and said that while there was a water gap, it was not nearly as big as presented in Amnesty's findings.

Amnesty said water consumption in Israel was 300 liters a day per person and 70 liters a day in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel's water authority said those numbers were misleading because they took into account internal distribution and did not compare total water consumption. It said the total figures were 408 liters per day for Israelis and 287 liters for Palestinians.

The Amnesty report described how Palestinians in the West Bank relied on water from tankers that were forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads off-limits to Palestinians.

The situation had led to steep increases in water prices, the report said.

Related articles:
  • World Bank: Israelis get four times more water than Palestinians
  • Israelis, Palestinians work together in bid to solve local water shortage
  • Amnesty: Israel harms Palestinian civilians, exploits foreigners
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      1.   Water 07:51  |  zznhl 27/10/09
      2.   Water recycling 08:03  |  Michael Davison 27/10/09
      3.   For years 08:29  |  English Resident 27/10/09
      4.   Since... 09:25  |  TC 27/10/09
      5.   Amnesty is biased 09:31  |  TC 27/10/09
      6.   agree. rubbish. not back up by evidence at all. 09:35  |  jo 27/10/09
      7.   Their water is on the east side of the Jordan River 09:37  |  Dani 27/10/09
      8.   Israel curbing water to Palestinians 09:48  |  Gerald -- Zang 27/10/09
      9.   What a nonsense 09:52  |  Dino 27/10/09
      10.   Israel curbing water to Palestinians #2 10:02  |  Gerald -- Zang 27/10/09
      11.   Israel has more than 2X the pop. & 4X as muchg agriculture 10:41  |  Observer 27/10/09
      12.   Amnesty EU Formed to be anti semitic. 10:46  |  Petra 27/10/09
      13.   LIES! Under Oslo they are supposed to get 23 c.m. but they get 70 11:05  |  truthfinder 27/10/09
      14.   Amnesty is biased 11:10  |  dani.a 27/10/09
      15.   Poor Pathetic Pals 11:32  |  Amnesty Liars 27/10/09
      16.   Amnesty 11:32  |  Ralph 27/10/09
      17.   This is beyond being cruel... 11:38  |  Ben 27/10/09
      18.   Water policits, Development, Training and Money down the drain. 11:47  |  Edward 27/10/09
      19.   What HAS happened to the Haaretz censor this morning? 12:03  |  Michael 27/10/09
      20.   Israel curbing water to Palestinians 12:07  |  Ephraim 27/10/09
      21.   Palestinian Population Exaggeration 12:15  |  Steve of Mevaserret 27/10/09
      22.   On the Haaretz home page, there is an ad 12:19  |  Erastus CoupeDeVille 27/10/09
      23.   TC: 4 times more water *per person*, you fool 12:22  |  AT 27/10/09
      24.   No surprise here 12:33  |  AT 27/10/09
      25.   Distribution 12:45  |  Fritz 27/10/09
      26.   AI 13:10  |  Frank Mazuca 27/10/09
      27.   and the blamegame has started once more 13:22  |  rm 27/10/09
      28.   Israeli water use = use in the US and even Ramallah 13:42  |  Ben-David 27/10/09
      29.   #13. Water consumption increases with pop.growth and draught 14:04  |  Joshua 27/10/09
      30.   Mark Regev is hitting the media hard 14:17  |  Radovan Karadzic 27/10/09
      31.   Nice touch that 14:19  |  Radovan Karadzic 27/10/09
      32.   World Bank supports Amnesty`s 4:1 water claim 15:18  |  Roo 27/10/09
      33.   AI is right, but they slept over the water issue too long 15:32  |  MM 27/10/09
      34.   observer 11 16:45  |  potobac 27/10/09
      35.   AI demands from Israel to destroy water sources 17:31  |  Gene 27/10/09
      36.   Instead of bombarding and invading Gaza 18:17  |  Yom Tov 27/10/09
      37.   TC (#5) 19:38  |  JJ 27/10/09
      38.   Arabs steal water from Israel 20:15  |  Chaim Ben Kahan 27/10/09
      39.   one thing is clear 20:49  |  sani 27/10/09
      40.   Water 20:57  |  sencar 27/10/09
      41.   It is interesting to see people pointing the finger at water 22:22  |  Richard Pearce 27/10/09
      42.   # 28 ben-david 23:21  |  Axel 27/10/09
      43.   #40 another know nothing posts rubbish 23:28  |  vhardman 27/10/09
      44.   Pure Bunk 23:54  |  RfaelMoshe 27/10/09
      45.   Chaim (#38) 00:22  |  JJ 28/10/09
      46.   KARADZIC is men sidewalk only by Israeli law? 01:19  |  PETER SM 28/10/09
      47.   ROO who is stopping Gaza using their water? Israeli fresh water 01:23  |  PETER SM 28/10/09
      48.   Israel created this water shortage... 06:03  |  Dutch 28/10/09
      49.   balance between oil and water 06:06  |  Capt Black 28/10/09
      50.   ROO If Israel is meeting it`s treaty obligations that`s it.Up to 06:22  |  PETER SM 28/10/09
      51.   curbing water? 06:53  |  ayboday 28/10/09
      52.   Water theft 07:17  |  Steve Beikirch 28/10/09
      53.   #38 A laughable argument, Chaim 07:49  |  Johnboy 28/10/09
      54.   #41 doris cadigan in a waterfall of stupidity 09:08  |  vhardman 28/10/09
      55.   # 28 ben-david 10:39  |  Axel 28/10/09
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