http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KKAA-7HG522?OpenDocument
The construction of the West Bank Wall has not only divided the Palestinians from the Israeli settlers in the area, but it also separates the Palestinians from an adequate water supply. This article that I found provides some disparaging statistics concerning the uneven distribution of water in the West Bank. It was horrifying for me to learn the the WHO estimates that the settlers are allowed to use almost fifty times the water allotted to the Palestinians on the other side of the wall. The flow of sewage from these hilltop settlements into the Palestinian water supply only makes things even worse. The control of the water supply by the Israeli government is a political tool that has been continually used in the colonization of Palestine. Since the creation of the state, the Israelis have had control of the vast majority of arable lands and the limited water supplies. With this advantage, the Israelis have been able to prosper, while exploiting the Palestinians by selling the water to them at high prices. Besides the medical implications on the Palestinian people, the economic consequences have kept them in a "cycle of poverty".
ok it's Iraq but it's interesting
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Here is a link to a blog put up by Morgan on a different Blog. There are a
number of entries that tie more to your topic than theirs. Enjoy.
16 years ago
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/01/990106075344.htm
ReplyDeleteTake my water and face the consequences.
If you don't have kids of your own, I don't see how you can fully appreciate the real emotions connected with such a thing. If that's you, ask mom about it. She will help you see this better, but you won't completely get this until you do have kids of our own.
If you want to have a fight with someone, try taking from them that which they need to survive. If that someone has kids, he or she will go to ANY extreme to provide for their needs. There are no regulations, laws, mores - NOTHING - that will stop a parent from doing what is necessary to provide for his/her children.
Bryan, if the report you cite is factual, and I bet it is, how can the Israelis expect anything other than fanatical responses from the economically and militarily weak Palestinians? If the situation was reversed and the Israelis were in the weakened, disadvantaged position, wouldn't they do practically ANYTHING to provide for their families?
It is difficult for us in the US to imagine the hopelessness felt by the Palestinians. We have our problems and there are usually solutions available to us to get them solved. Palestinians have no apparent solutions to their problems. The Israelis MUST realize this. Do they want to have their own Holocaust hanging over their heads?
Incredibly, Obama has lobbed a small dose of "American tough-talk" the Israeli's way. Could it be that our tough talk could affect some useful change in the region? It has worked before. Kennedy told the Soviets, "Go ahead. Bring your missiles to Cuba. Just see what happens." Reagan told Gorby, "Bring down this lovely German wall." Maybe he was about ready to do so anyway, but, Gorby obeyed and it looked like it was Reagan's tough-talk that did it.
Maybe a slowing of the US money/weapons train would wake up some Israeli leaders and help them realize that their American shield and 007-like right-to-do-anything-they-want might just be coming to an abrupt halt.
I could see how a measure of common decency applied to the Palestinians might just produce a significant reduction in terrorism. This seems to me to be a potential win-win scenario. Maybe an Israeli overhaul of their water-rights policy would be the show of good faith that would get the ball rolling toward peace.
"Peace don't come easy, but it don't never come when yer parched."
Dan Bergthold - Nearly Filterless Man
2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/01/990106075344.htm