Israel Matzav

Government slams French report on water resources in Judea and Samaria

Israel has slammed a report by a French Assembly member that accuses Israel of 'apartheid' in the allocation of water resources in Judea and Samaria.

Water has become an integral element of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the extent that it prompted the creation of the Joint Water Committee to oversee distribution of joint water resources in the 1995 Oslo II interim agreement – a committee over which Israel has complete veto power, the essay argues. As Areas A and B are not contiguous and are “fragmented into enclaves surrounded by roads reserved for settlers,” development of Palestinian infrastructure is nearly impossible, according to the author.

“Water has become in the Middle East more than a resource – it is a weapon,” the report says.

The essay goes on to slam Israel for the priority it gives to Jewish West Bank settlers over Palestinians during times of drought, as well as the “separation wall,” which it says provides Israel with control over groundwater access. Charging that “wells spontaneously drilled by Palestinians in the West Bank are systematically destroyed by the Israeli army,” the report also blasts the IDF for 2008-2009 “bombardments” of Gazan reservoirs.

In response, the Foreign Ministry charged the author with employing “hateful propaganda” in an unprofessional manner that prevents any rational debate and instead harbors “the most extreme of anti- Israeli discourse,” along with a “sweeping denial of all possibilities for dialogue.”

“The systematic evading of simple facts that are available for verification within the field indicate the blatant bias of the author,” a ministry spokesman said.

Not only does Israel does not take away water from the PA, it actually supplies the neighboring government with much more than it is required to under the Oslo Accords, the ministry continued. Meanwhile, the spokesman explained, Palestinians are actually abandoning their own commitments by perpetuating pirated well-drilling all over the region.

“Instead of contributing to the understanding and cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians, the report fuels the tensions by piling up false data and distorted statements, and this destructive approach must be dismissed from the beginning,” the ministry said.

When Israeli diplomats brought the report to the attention of the legislators who helped Glavany draft the report, the latter were actually “astonished” to see the harsh wording of the final version, according to the ministry. The co-authors, as well as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the chairman of the France-Israel Friendship group, repudiated Glavany’s claims and issued public statements to this effect, accusing Glavany of using a “venomous and disparaging tongue against Israel,” the spokesman said.

We've had five years of drought in this area - this is the first year in recent years that might actually break that trend.

But the question really ought to be whether or not we're abiding by the agreements that we signed in 1995, and the answer to that question is clearly "yes." The fact that the 'Palestinians' and their supporters would like to change those agreements to our detriment does not obligate us to change them.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Judea and Samaria, Oslo accords, water shortage

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:50 PM