Israel Matzav

Amnesty waterboards the truth

CAMERA has an extensive write-up that rips apart Amnesty's report on Israel's use of water resources in our region. Here's the bottom line.

Perhaps the best antidote to Amnesty’s false claims is an outline of the basic facts about water in the Middle East, starting with the reality that Israel does not take “Palestinian water.” Israel obtains roughly 50 percent of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Coastal Aquifer, both of which are entirely within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Another 30 percent comes from the Western and Northeastern Aquifers of the Mountain Aquifer system. These aquifers straddle the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank, but most of the stored water is under pre-1967 Israel, making it easily accessible only in Israel.

Thus, even in the 1950s Israel used 95 percent of the Western Aquifer’s water, and 82 percent of the Northeastern Aquifer’s water. Today, Israel’s share of these aquifers has declined to 83 percent and 80 percent, respectively. That is, under direct Israeli administration the Palestinian share of these aquifers has actually increased.

In addition, every year over 40 MCM (million cubic meters) of water from sources within Israel is piped over the Green Line for Palestinian use in the West Bank. Ramallah, for example, receives over 5 MCM. And despite the virtural declaration of war against Israel by the Hamas rulers of Gaza, Israel still sends to Gaza another 4 MCM of Israeli water annualy. Thus, it is the Palestinians who are using Israeli water.

And not just the Palestinians. Despite its own meager supply, Israel annually provided 600,000 CM of water to ten otherwise dry villages in South Lebanon, and provides more than 55 MCM annually to Jordan. Perhaps no other country in the world, facing the severe shortages that Israel does, has shared so much water with its neighbors.

One of the 'proofs' that Amnesty brought of Israelis wasting water was a picture of a swimming pool in Maaleh Adumim, A Jewish town in the Judean desert. The picture above is from a swimming pool located in Funland in ... Ramallah. Yes, the poor oppressed 'Palestinians' even have amusement parks with swimming pools.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:29 AM