Palestinian Authority Violating Water Accords

Hat Tip: Ra'anan; Sergio

The Oslo Accords have been a one-sided agreement, with Israel doing all the compromising, from the start of the American-backed talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. While the anti-Israel crowd often makes accusations of water shortage, Israel as a country hardly has enough water and information shows that the Palestinian Authority continuously violates water agreements.

From Arutz 7:

....Despite several claims by human rights organizations that Israel has taken water away from what is now the Palestinian Authority, the amount of water available to PA Arabs since the Six-Day War in 1967 actually has gone up while Israelis have suffered a whopping 70 percent drop in their resources.

“The amount of natural water, including underground aquifers, the amount of water available annually to every Israeli before 1967 was 500 cubic liters a year,” the Water Authority explained. “Today the figure is 149 cubic liters, while water available to PA Arabs actually has increased by 22 percent, from 87 cubic liters to 105 cubic liters a year per capita.”

It noted that the gap that exists “is not so great” to be termed a disaster.

At the same time, the PA is not treating sewage for agriculture, as agreed on with Israel in 1995 as part of the Oslo Accords. NGO Monitor’s President Prof. Gerald Steinberg said, “Amnesty’s report manipulates the issue of water and ignores the complexities of history and law in order to again falsely portray Israel as a brutal regime. The report adopts a painfully simplistic narrative which places blame solely on Israel, to the extent that the Palestinian leadership is absolved of responsibility for the agreements signed under the Oslo framework."

Israel’s water resources are near an all-time low, following four years of drought along with increasing water usage and a growing population. Higher water levies and conservation measures have cut water consumption by more than 20 percent this year.

Forecasters have cautiously predicted this winter will be wetter than usual, but it would take a modern miracle to replenish the country’s resources....

Also See:
- "War Crimes" and Shoddy Journalism