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Tuesday, 26 August 2008 16:17 |
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Israeli Violations of International Law on Water in the Occupied Territories Extracts from an article by Stephen Lendman / July 16th, 2008 West Bank water is another Palestinian asset that Israel illegally utilises / monopolises. West Bank has three principle aquifers supplying about one-quarter of Israel’s needs, including for its settlements and nearly all of what West Bank Palestinians get. They are:
* the Yarkon-Tanninim Aquifer supplying Israel with about 340 million cubic meters (mcm) of water annually — to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv mainly; Palestinians get far less — about 20 mcm a year;
* the Nablus-Gilboa Aquifer supplying about 115 mcm annually, largely for agricultural irrigation in Galilee-based kibbutzim and moshavim cooperative settlements;
* the Eastern Aquifer supplying about 40 mcm a year to Jordan Valley-based settlements; another 60 mcm go to Palestinians.
Water also comes from the upper Jordan River and its tributaries — the Sea of Galilee, the Yarmouth, and lower Jordan River. Palestinians are denied most of it. As their population grows, shortages have become more acute because of Israel’s restrictive policies. By integrating Occupied Territory water resources into its legal and bureaucratic system and denying Palestinians the right to develop them for their own use, Israel violates international law under Articles 43 and 55 of the 1907 Hague Regulations. Also Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to treating “all protected persons….with the same consideration by the Party to the conflict in whose power they are….”
Then there’s Article 6 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. It requires water division between states to be reasonable and equitable. Not according to a specific formula but with regard to seven factors: |
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Sunday, 04 January 2009 21:46 |
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Highlights from the article: "(Israel's) basic constitutional documents speak of a "Jewish democratic state" while about 20 percent of (it's) citizens are non-Jews. (Israel) have no separation of synagogue and state. ... Earlier this summer, Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed two troubling pieces of legislation: the first (which still awaits final ratification) exempts the state from compensating Palestinians harmed during Israel Defense Force (IDF) operations in the territories. The second, aimed at curtailing the travel of Arab members of the Kenesset (MK), states that any Israeli who has visited an "enemy country" shall be considered a supporter of armed struggle against the Jewish state (unless proven otherwise), and will be prevented from running for parliament in the seven years following the visit."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0924/p09s03-coop.html |
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Wednesday, 25 February 2009 21:07 |
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More than 1,500 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem could be made homeless after Israel told them their homes are illegal and are to be demolished. "The owners of 80 houses in the al-Bustan neighbourhood have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they are illegal," Hatem Abdel Kader, an official responsible for Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian government, said. Kader said that several of the houses served with demolition orders had been built before the 1967 war, when Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan, but that numerous extensions have been built since. "The [Jerusalem] municipality used this as a pretext to issue the demolition orders despite appeals by the residents," he said. No comment was immediately available from the city authorities. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital and has annexed the Arab east of the city, but under international law east Jerusalem is considered to be occupied and has not been recognised by world powers as the Israeli capital. According to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation, Israeli authorities have demolished about 350 houses in east Jerusalem since 2004, saying that they were built without permits. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 21:38 |
Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027
Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the OPT.
In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent to which Israel’s discriminatory water policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access to water.
Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes for itself all the water available from the Jordan River.
While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day, four times as much.
In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations.
Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater.
In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.
Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.
In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.
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Wednesday, 10 September 2008 23:05 |
Written by Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
According to Member of Knesset, Zahava Galon, from the Meretz Party, (Haaretz, 19 August 2008), during the last fifty days of the summer session of the Knesset, 16 anti-democratic laws have been submitted to vote by Israeli parliamentarians. According to Haaretz columnist, Akiva Eldar, most of these laws have been supported by the Labor Party:
1) An amendment to the civil-damages law which exempt the government from paying damages to innocent Palestinian bystanders hit by the Israeli military in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; this amendment is retroactive;
2) An amendment to Israel’s penal code, exempting the police from needing to document interrogations of persons suspected of a security offense;
3) Immunity for a person who attacks a trespasser on his property;
4) A Requirement of a national referendum or a majority vote of 3/4 of the Knesset Members in order to ratify a peace agreement involving any return of territories;
5) An amendment to the Knesset Basic Law that cancels the right to be elected to the Knesset of anyone who has visited an enemy-country without prior permission (nicknamed the “Bishara Amendment”);
6) An extension for the eighty year (sic) of an emergency measure that prohibits Palestinian family reunification into Israel of a resident of the occupied territories, (there is a pending procedure in the Israeli Supreme Court against this measure).
7) The prohibition of mourning ceremonies for someone who has committed a terror act;
8) No pension for a Knesset member suspected of an offense against state security;
9) The cancellation of citizenship or residency rights to members of the family of a terrorist;
10) Amendment to the Entry to Israel Law, which allows for the detention of a person asking for asylum for up to nine (sic) years;
11) A prohibition against artists who have not served in the Israeli military from performing in a event subsidized by the state;
12) The Jewish National Fund can allocate state lands to Jews only;
13) An amendment to the Citizenship Law that would transfer the prerogative of canceling citizenship from the Ministry of Interior to an Administrative Court;
14) The cancellation of state allocation for the burial expenses of a terrorist;
15) The right to keep in jail, until the end of hostilities, whoever is considered "illegal fighter," even if he was never put to trial;
16) A pardon to all those Israeli citizens who have been sentenced regarding activities against the redeployment from Gaza.
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Thursday, 12 February 2009 21:36 |
| Many products! sold by Bunnings Warehouse |
| Bunnings stocks too many Israeli products to list here. The majority of them are from the Israeli plastics industry, such as children's outdoor furniture and toys. We urge shoppers to carefully check the country of origin of such products before purchasing from Bunnings. |
| Write them a letter NOW! |
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Thursday, 26 February 2009 20:41 |
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Palestinian human rights activists are suing the UK government for alleged "flagrant" breaches of international law in its dealings with Israel. The organisation Al-Haq has called for a High Court judicial review into the UK policy of selling arms to Israel. It says Britain broke international obligations not to render "aid or assistance" to Israel following its invasion of Gaza last year. The Foreign Office said Britain's arms trade was tightly regulated. Al-Haq said the UK government appears to have "positively assisted" Israel in its invasion of Gaza last year by continuing to sell it weapons. The organisation also says a record amount of UK arms exports to Israel were approved in the first quarter of last year. Following the lodging of papers in the High Court calling for a judicial review, Phil Shiner, a solicitor representing Al-Haq, said he believed the issue deserved a full court hearing. He said: "It is Al-Haq's position that if the UK were to meet its international obligations now, Palestinian lives and limbs in Gaza would be saved. "There would be a much greater chance of accountability for Israel's actions and a change in the policies of all key players so that nothing like it can ever again befall the Palestinian people." Al-Haq's case is that Britain has an obligation, under international law, not to assist Israel because it says Israel has interfered with the Palestinian right to self-determination, has acquired territory by force and has committed war crimes. Other pro-Palestinian groups have voiced support for the legal action. Bruce Kent, vice president of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi, said: "This government is complicit in arms sales to Israel some of which have been used to commit war crimes." |
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