Comment / Claims Israel deprives Palestinians of water are groundless

up in their faces.The whole area has drought problems and Israel is not depriving the Pals of anything.The PA and Hamas and the Islamic regimes are killing arabs more than anyone.The Pals have alot of international money that they don't deserve and for a people that didn't exist as a nation before 1967 and whose first leader was Egyptian born nazi/muslim brotherhood inspired Arafat, they get more assistance than anyone.The arab governments make their lives hard by not allowing them to settle and using them as a wedge against Israel.The Pals should shun their leadership care about their own children make peace with Israel and tell all the other Islamic governments and groups to jump in the ocean. The Pals will lose everything on this path of evil especially their soul.love your children and make peace with Israel and tell Hamas to shove it

Israel gets 30 percent of its national water supply from the West Bank aquifer. This in itself is a stand alone rason for Israel's intransgience on a peace deal based on two states and 1967 borders. Water is also why Hezbollah remains a threat. According to Lebanon, Syria, the people living there and Hezbollah Shebaa Farms is not part of the Golan Hgts but was ceded to lebanon in 1951 when the two nations resolved boundaries. Thus Hezbollah believes Israel is still occupying Lebanese territory. Shebaa Farms ...He who controls Shebaa Farms controls A LOT OF WATER. PS- I don't believe for a parsec that Israel gives equal access to water.

The JP regularly gives space to critics of Israel such as Larry Derfner, Richard Goldstone, Ken Roth (Human Rights Watch),J Street,Peace Now and many others.

You do no honour to Haaretz to write this simplistic kind of rubbish, Mr Harel. You, if you read Haaretz, will have perused many articles, from Amira Hass, and other reporters, on the politics of water restriction, inflated water costs (ask Palestinian hoteliers), wells being destroyed by the border police, IDF or settlers (in the Hebron hills, to name one area) etc. But the key point is that the Israeli water carrier supplying the 'settlements' draws on acquifers in the West Bank, which under law, is not Israeli territory, but rather Palestinian in any future state. Unilaterial control of scarce water is one of the key elements of Israeli policy. The next time you go to Ma'ale Adunim, ask yourself about why that settlement has well-watered landscaping, while below you see Bedouin shanties everywhere, tin and cheap curtain, and no sign of water, camped in a waterless desert.

How does the author account for the fact that the settlers have enough water to fill swimming pools and water their lawns? How does author account for the fact that Palestinian children rummage through their garbage for scrap metal to sell because the settler garbage is more valuable? How does the author account for the every day land confiscation and violations that go on every day for settlement activity? This article is astonishing. I give it an A plus for pure propoganda value.

Amnesty International is biased. It didn't check the facts. How dare it to accuse Israel? Is it anti-semitic? Does it have a hidden agenda? Is it part of the worldwide efforts to delegitimize Israel? Or maybe, just maybe does it have a point and is there indeed something wrong with the way water is handled in the Westbank? Nah couldn't be, could it? Anybody knows that Israel is always, and I do mean always acting with the best intentions towards Palestinians.

Why do Israeli homes have a better water supply than Sudanese homes? Simple answer - Israel must be stealing it!

Israel Harel wrote: "..there is no income-providing agriculture in Judea and Samaria.." Then please explain how most of the supermarkets in the UK supply herbs grown on the "West Bank", which the importers admit are from settlement farms. Amnesty has a remarkably high reputation for the integrity and thoroughness of its reports. As one commentator said: "You judge people by their criticism of Amnesty rather than the other way round."

The FAO's AQUASTAT database reports the following information for 2006: Israel: 287 m3 per capita Palestinian Territories: 107 m3 per capita Jordan: 164 m3 per capita Lebanon: 323 m3 per capita Syria: 860 m3 per capita (no, that's not a typo) The statistic that I find more interesting is the percentage of fresh water used that is derived from desalination or recycling: Israel: 20.6% Palestinian territories: 2.4% Jordan: 7.0% Lebanon: 3.7% Syria: 3.3%

You state "Amnesty is a respected organization" But the very moment they criticize Israel you are calling them (on the basis of what evidence?) unprofessional and inaccurate. Funny.

Palestinians pump "70 million cubic meters" according to IH. This is 31 cubic meters per Pal per year, or 85 liters per day. This is pretty close to the 71 liters a day Amnesty claims (and IH denies). Average Israeli consumption is 330 liters per day (source B'tselem) so even IH's increased Pal pumping figures come nowhere near to accounting for the difference.

I live inside the Green Line, and if my water bills are to be believed, I use something like 30 liters of water per day. It is unclear from the report whether they calculated the per capita water usage based on total residential usage or on total usage. It's also not clear whose numbers they used for the Palestinian population, given that no one knows what it is exactly (although as far as I can tell, the Palestinians' own figures are significantly exaggerated).

The infrastructure is regularly demolished by the moral army, who blocks importation of anything that might make the life of Palestinians a little better, freezes any money collected on behalf of the Palestinians, bombs the tunnels which allow imports of food.. ETC. WE shall never forget!

Yes the Palestinians use all your water in their swimming pools. WE can see them on Google Earth!

Israel Harel is either being disingenuous or is ignorant of the flourishing Palestinian agriculture in the West Bank. In many of the areas where the mostly hilltop settlements sprout, local Palestinian farmers have been farming for centuries. Between the 'hilly terrain' there is often very fertile valleys where a huge variety of crops flourish. The area between Bethlehem and Hebron is famous for its grapes. There are lush valleys in the central highlands and the northern plains between Nablus and Jenin grow bountiful crops. Perhaps if the settlers cooperated with their Arab neighbors for justice and democracy there would be an exchange of agricultural knowhow. Rather than planting - in public spaces - palm trees, lawns, and temperate climate flowers in the middle of the Judean desert (Ma'ale Adumim), Israel might generate a little goodwill by helping Palestinian farmers solve their water issues.

Some figures: Palestinians are allocated 200 million cubic meters (mcm) a year in the West Bank. From the Amnesty figure of 70 liters/head/day with a population in the West bank of 1.8 million, the PA are therefore pumping 46 mcm a year. ie about a quarter of what they could. Meanwhile Israel provides 52 mcm a year.

Israel chose to annexe East Jerusalem. How come its water is mostly still supplied from Ramallah then? Strange how Israel is selective in its annexation policies. Water from the West Bank and ancient Jordanian employment law for the workers of Maale Adumin!

Many of my Palestinian friends who farm in the Baka valley near Kiriyat Arba and Hebron have been denied water connections by Israel for many years. No-one disputes that the extended Jaber family owns thousands of dunams in the valley, however their please for water have consistently fallen on deaf ears. Their land is in Area 'C', under the complete control of Israel. The Israeli government is responsible for providing services in Area 'C', not the Palestinian Authority. In the meanwhile the Jewish residents of the adjacent settlement of Kiriyat Arba have plenty of water, enough even to waste on lawns and green areas in the settlement, while their neighbors have to wait for the Winter rains.

I agree with No 1 - I also live in the Bethlehem area and our water supply has recently gone from one day every 2 weeks to 1 day every 3 weeks. Meanwhile our neighbours in Gilo, Har Gilo, Efrat etc have a constant water supply to water their gardens and wash their cars. Notice the number of water tanks on the roof of any Palestinian home - in order to pump up as much water as possible to last the three weeks. How many water tanks does a Settler home have? Same as homes in all other Israeli towns I suppose - 1 for cold water and 1 for hot water, with a constant supply of both.

If you have a problem with water go to yours Pal leaders and ask for the money they stole that World Organizations have given to get yours plaming done, water under Palestine?? Is this anther fair tale you have been fed?As far as I'm concern you get nothing from Israel as long you don't wont to accept it!!!

One of the interesting points not mentioned was Palestinian theft of water by breaking into the main and rampant tapping throughout samaria. This causes about 3 times the amount of shutdown from pressure loss and scarcity than your contrived accusations about the big bad imperialist Israeli government. That isn't even to mention the way that the excess of wells they have dug, after Israel exceeded its provisional agreement in Oslo, have caused widespread destruction of shared aquifers... I lived in Jericho to dumbass, get over yourself.

Israel Harel says there is no watershortage. I do remind anyone that his agenda is a pro-settler one! On issues like this he has no credibility. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the conflict KNOWS that the water is unfairly distributed with Israel in full control! And please stop attacking the messenger. Time to take on the system, not those who dare to raise their voice against it.

....for the Jerusalem Post...???? Hmmm..... .....says a lot about the political "balance" in the Israel of 2009, doesn't it...????

Some in the coffers of the Palis; not the stupid Europeans, Americans, Israelis....NOT the UN and it's dz's or 100's sub affiliates (no one is checking them either) Until it changes, islam's relentless steamroller will flatten all opposition as they are doing in parts of Europe and, with the same ardor, and " the correct" current administration of the US of A.

The PA for many years have squandered massive amounts of infrastructural funding provided to them from the International communities. More recently this has been repeated by Hammas in Gaza. That taps or electricity are not always running in the West Bank or Gaza can be the result of a multitude of reasons, and knee-jerk reactions to blame Israel for it may not be founded. Just because senior Palestinian officials might make allegations against Israel is in no means evidence that Israel is to blame. The PA for years have been blaming Israel for just about everything under the sun that goes wrong with their administration, as it gives them a number of advantages: 1) It provides a cover up for their own failures whilst tarnishing Israel's image. 2) It gains world sympathy 3) It gives grounds to request for more international aid. In come organizations such as AI and the Goldstone committee, oblivious to the reality here, who lap up a lot of nonsense provided by the PA and Hammas.

Subdued piece by piece.Israel,like most Jews,like to complain,moan,and 'Kvetch'.Their last day of glory (like the US in WWII),was the 6 day war.Today,like yesterday,Jews gleefully jump on any bandwagon with the goal of demonizing the only State they have (for how long at this rate?).They carry this'schtetl'complex into the 21st century,amid hi-rises,fast cars,fine dining,a first philharmonic,and of course 'electronic' wizardry. Statements by our foes,like hamas, ahmadino,hezbo,ALL their ayatollahs,and some of our friends;Jordan,Egypt,Turkey,including this modern/ancient relic of all the "wise men on earth" the UN,are usually splashed all over our media,day, after day, after day.Their lies, insults, calumnies,falsehoods,hearsay by divine 'miracle' turn into "truths"; picked by world media, then the mandatory UN investigation (very well oiled).Of course,no one on earth is enquiring as to the whereabouts of the billions$$ that flowed into the pockets -- SEE PART 2 ..

The Israel-haters commenting here have absolutely no credibility to their arguments and simply sound foolish. I wish the extremists would just stick to their own, libelous websites and stop harrassing this respectable news source. The information presented here is made up of pure fact - hating Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, simply because it is what it is IS anti-semetic. Don't you people have something better to do? Some Israelis are twisting Zionism and making it seem like something it's not, but people are too quick to assume that anything Zionist is automatically evil. I say, even if you're critical of Israel, atleast applaud them when they do something right for the Palestinians, such as the actions discussed in this article.

the water in the occupied West Bank acquifers belongs to the Palestinians, not Israel. Israel is overpumping these acquifers like it did in Gaza, stealing the Palestinians' water and selling a fraction of it back to them. LOL. P.S. - If anyone thinks that the withdrawal from Gaza was a magnanimous gesture, think again. Gaza's water was pumped dry and there wasn't any fresh water to quench the settlements thirst.

Amnesty is a respected organization that has done a lot of good for this world. It is precisely for this reason, I hope that if there is anyone out there who belongs to AI who reading this post, that AI doubles, triples and quadruple checks the allegations they have recently made against Israel, and make detractions if need be. On the face of it, the recent report about water allocation abuse is slapstick, unprofessional and inaccurate. It doesn't only unfairly tarnish Israel's image, reports like this in the long run tarnish AI's respectable image.

according to the author,"..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 " Maybe my math is wrong, but if this refers to the approx. 2.2M Palestinians in the West Bank alone, that works out to about 10 cubic m per person per year, or something on the order of just 30 liters a day.

Refusing to bend,if you can of course, is going to make you break apart into thousand pieces.

I find myself this time agreeing with Israel. Amnesty is not a credible organization. Palestinians have enough water. I know this from talking to many Palestinians here in California. (Thanks Ibn Rushd)

"to shake the Zionist sense of justice." Zionists have no sense of justice where Palestinians are concerned- Dime bombs, masked settlers beating old women herding goats,uprooting olive trees, a settlement emptying its septic tanks on an Arab village, operation price tag, Judge Adrian Agassi- the list is endless. Very weak essay. Harel isn't too smart, but he's a master of self deception.

I was in Bethlehem for 3 months and what I saw there is water being disconnected for 7 to 14 days. If you are one of rare lucky ones who happenes to get water from the same line that feeds settlements that does not happen to you. I was not, the tanks on the roofs run out quick and have pay a premumim for a tanker which brings water most likly from Israel. It is about time that people are pointing out the facts and what israel has gotten used to doing all these years. Peace is better for Palestinians since pals can spend more time pointing these things than fight a loosing war.

How much water do Syrians and Jordanians consume?

you want to keep them both. thieves. criminals. murderers. that's what you are.

"Claims Israel deprives Palestinians of water are groundless" On which planet do you live? We hardly have water. It goes off without notice. It's rationed most of the time. You are lying, Israel Harel. Israel controls all the water that is allowed to flow to Palestinians. Our government then does its best with what we get... which is drops and droplets. Most of the water reserves are under Palestinian land. That's another reason you do not want to leave Palestine.