Israel: Thou Shalt Not Drink Water
By Hwaa Irfan
As summer comes sooner rather than later, one of the things that we will all be doing is to quench our thirsts. It is a reflex action. We think nothing more of facilitating this fundamental need. If we do not, we become subject to dehydration. In fact by the time we do feel thirsty we have already begun dehydrating. If we do not replenish our watery bodies we can react in varying ways depending on what we have become accustomed to, but regardless we become overheated, experience heat exhaustion or even heat stroke.
Lethargy sets in, and muscles become cramped because muscles are 70% water. The ability to remain alert wanes as bodily processes slow down, including the elimination of waste. This is what makes one feel ill. Our cells start to take water from our bloodstream making our hearts work harder. Then constipation becomes a problem, and the skin becomes very dry and therefore itchy. Acne becomes a problem, and nosebleeds occur, along with urinary tract and upper respiratory infections, and headaches.
Noting that the body can only last a week without water, there are the more serious affects of long term dehydration which many of us will never know unless lost in a desert. Mouth becomes caked, lips cracked, tongue swells,, eyes recede into their sockets, brunign sensation in the bladder, temperature rockets, brain cells dry out causing convulsions, respiratory tract becomes blocked, and the lungs, heart, and brain would give up and one dies.
Not a nice thought, and one that might not occur to many as Israel reduces Palestinian access to water on the West Bank.
It is difficult to comprehend the kind of mentality that lies behind such an action that is blind to the fact that it cannot continue to maintain its pseudo-existence surrounded by a potential threat that it has created from its own miscreations. Israel is so fearful of the consequences of its actions since existence that it has not noticed that if it just stopped doing what it has been doing since 1948, and accept what it has been offered, the choice to live in peaceful coexistence. Not everyone behaves in the manner that it, Israel and its allies have behaved as exmapled by the many Jews that live in Arab lands.
But no, they would rather something that is quite unsustainable, and in the endeavour continue to carry out babaric acts.
Settlers backed by the government have been taking over the few natural supplies of water, the springs, and have been preventing Palestinian access through acts of intimidation, and even fencing off those springs. At least 30 springs are now under the control of settlers.
Israel controls security in the West Bank as well as planning and building, but there is still land thaat is privately owned by Palestinians. Sixty per cent of the springs are in the West Bank, and Israeli settlers have prevented Palestinians from accessing 22 of those springs which are their source of water for irrigation, livestock, and domestic consumption.
This demonic government that convinced the U.S. and allies on the now assumed stance towards Syria and Iran, is dragging the whole world into a WWIII scenario, which seems far removed from establishing an Israeli state, a state it knows it has no right to.
Traditionally water management in the region has been a heritage passed down from generation to generation, and thus practiced by the Palestinian people and the Jews (not Zionists) who have always lived amongst them. Water security has become an issue becuase of the European migrants who have illegally occupied the land in an attempt to establish an Israeli (not Jewish) state. The only other sources of water has been the headwaters of the River Jordan in N.E. Israel, the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel, southern Lebanon, Lake Tiberias, and the Yarmouk River of Syria and Jordan.
Even though Israel only constitutes 3% of the Jordan basin area, it controls most of the water. Israel consumes 70-100 million cubic meters from the Yarmouk, and pipes 1.5 million cubic meters daily from Lake Tiberias. Whereas the water flow in the River Jordan in 1953 was 1250 million cubic meters annually that has been severely reduced to 152-203 million cubic meters annually.
Palestinian use less than 0.5% of the Jordan’s waters. If they want to make a well, they have to get permission from the military, and since 1967, only 23 wells have been granted. Palestinians have been deprived for a long time without sufficient water supply, and now Israel wants to go one step further to make it completely impossible unless they do as Israel wishes. All forms of punishment are applied to prevent access. Even paying for water, Palestinians can expect to pay much more for water than the Israelis. Aid is not the solution, for all forms of aid granted to the Palestinian Occupied Territories have only served to maintain the status quo.
Sources:
Isaac, J. “Core Issues of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Dispute.” http://www.nad-plo.org/userfiles/file/Reports/core.pdf
“Palestinians Lose Water Access as Israelis Take Over Springs.” http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2012/2012-03-21-01.html
Related Topics:
From Silwan to the City of David
Israelis Stoked the Riots in Silwan
Palestine: For the Love of Freedom!
For Freedom: Flotillas on the Way to Gaza
Israel Warships Follow Asian Aid Ship to Gaza
One Up for Mankind: Gaza-Rafah Border to Open Permanently
Israel Preparing to Take on the World
How Fear was Instilled to Make Jews Leave for Israel
Clean Water a Luxury in E. Californian Schools
Libya: NATO Poisoning the Purest Water in the World
Water: The Privatization of Our Birth Right
Hwaairfan's Blog 