U.S. Water News Online
JERUSALEM -- A far-right Israeli Cabinet minister has ordered a stop to all water drilling by Palestinians in the West Bank, accusing them of drawing illegally from hundreds of wells and depleting supplies in the parched region.
The Palestinian water commissioner denounced the decision by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Effie Eitam, saying it was part of what he called the Israeli government's ``war'' against the Palestinians. ``They want us to be thirsty,'' said the commissioner, Fadal Kawash.
The Israeli agriculture minister, Shalom Simchon, also criticized Eitam, saying the drilling ban would cause unnecessary friction with the Palestinians.
Eitam, a patron of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said he issued the ban because the Palestinians are violating water-sharing agreements and ``are carrying out hundreds of illegal water drillings, seriously hurting the water resources.''
Eitam, who heads the National Religious Party, said Israel would continue to fulfill its obligation to supply the Palestinians with water to avoid a water shortage in Palestinian areas.
Kawash, the Palestinian commissioner, accused Israel of not fulfilling interim water agreements reached in 1995. Under the arrangement, Israel was to make it possible for the Palestinians to obtain enough water to overcome annual shortages. Kawash said that of 200 wells the Palestinians proposed, Israel only approved 14, leaving more than 300,000 Palestinians in 240 villages without running water.
The shortage of water has led some Palestinians, mostly around the West Bank city of Jenin, to drill wells illegally, Kawash said, adding that the water is mostly used for drinking and for small vegetable gardens.
``We couldn't stop them because we have no alternative way of providing them with water,'' Kawash said.
Israel uses 85 percent of Palestinian water supplies in the West Bank, Kawash said.
In the past two years of fighting, when all other forms of cooperation between the sides fell apart, joint ventures in water and agriculture continued, said Simchon, the Israeli agriculture minister.
But Kawash said that a joint water committee has not met since hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power in 2001.
Kawash said that if Israel restricted Palestinian water supplies, ``we are going to find ourselves in a big crisis in the coming years.''
``Don't be surprised if the next intefadeh (uprising) will be the water intefadeh, led by thirsty people who want water,'' Kawash said.
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