Final 2012 Presentation

Prawer Plan: Responses and Projections

The Prawer Plan was approved by the Israeli government in September 2011 and is slated to expel the native Bedouin Arab Israeli citizens from the Naqab (Negev) desert.  The Prawer Plan will displace the Bedouins to plant forests, build military bases and establish new settlements.  Almost all 200,000 of the Bedouin in the Negev will be affected.  

The international community has strongly disapproved the Prawer Plan.  Both the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the European Parliament have called on Israel to stop the Prawer Plan for its discriminatory nature and policies of displacement, eviction and dispossession, respectively. 

There is increasing concern about the ramifications of failing to withdraw the Prawer plan.  Dr. Cinton Bailey, a native of Buffalo, a resident of Israel since 1958 and a scholar of Bedouin culture, warns of a Bedouin uprising.   Bailey explains that the Bedouin community is an educated generation of professionals, teachers and university students whose families have been denied rights to the land they owned before 1948.  

Bailey notes, "[i]f someone imagines that such an operation will go down easily, he is mistaken.  Indeed, the Israel Police has begun enlisting hundreds of officers to keep the peace while these houses are being demolished, an action scheduled to get under way as early as August. The pictures from these demolition and relocation operations, seen around the world, will make the recent assault by Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner on a Danish peace activist seem like a marginal event."

Dr. Bailey's entire article can be found at Haaretz: Get ready for a Bedouin uprising.

- S.B.H.

Blue Planet Project and Lifesource's Paper on the Right to Water in Palestine

Last month, the Blue Planet Project and Lifesource published a paper on water issues in the West Bank and Gaza.  While covering a very different situation than what we looked at in the Naqab/Negev desert area, their paper gives a very good overview of the water sources and the politics and policies surrounding water usage.

It's also a very well laid-out report, and organizes its sections effectively and clearly.  The report can be viewed here:
http://www.blueplanetproject.net/documents/RTW/RTW-Palestine-1.pdf

The Lifesource website has more information about water issues in the West Bank and Gaza:
http://www.lifesource.ps/english/home/

- F.B.J.

5-page Preliminary Report

Today, we held our preliminary presentation for the law school.  Many people showed up, and the presentation went very well.  By a lucky coincidence, three judges from Israel happened to be in town, and came to our presentation!

Everyone asked interesting questions, and we are looking forward to giving our full report in September.

You can read the preliminary report here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/70258244/MTAD_WaterRights_Preliminary_Report.pdf

ActiveStills and Al Araqib

A man irrigating his new planted olives trees, after Israeli authorities demolished houses and uprooted olive trees in the unrecognized village of Al Araqib, October, 2009

From http://activestills.org/content/al-araqib#4 

 A photographic documentation of the Al-Araqib village between the years 2009-2011. Al-Araqib is one of the 45 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert, south Israel. Since July 27, 2010 till the end of 2011, the village was demolished 33 times. Despite of daily harassment, ongoing house demolitions and the Israeli government's determination to forcefully transfer the Bedouin population out of their historical land, the residents of Al-Araqib continue to struggle for  their land.

The Activestills collective was established in 2005 by a group of Israeli and international documentary photo-graphers, out of a strong conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change.

The Other Arab Spring - a movement for natural resource access

Thomas Friedman posted a fascinating op-ed piece in the N.Y. Times the other day, positing that basic resources like food and water play a major role in the Arab Spring political movements.

Says Friedman in this article:

"All these tensions over land, water and food are telling us something: The Arab awakening was driven not only by political and economic stresses, but, less visibly, by environmental, population and climate stresses as well. If we focus only on the former and not the latter, we will never be able to help stabilize these societies."

Link here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/friedman-the-other-arab-spring.html


- J.K., F.B.J.

A College for the Bedouin

Rahat (photo from Wikimedia)

Haaretz published a very interesting opinion piece this week asking if a plan by Israeli President Shimon Peres to open a university for the Bedouin near the city of Rahat is really "what the Bedouin need right now."

The university will be built as a part of the Age of the Negev project, an "employment park" to be built near the impoverished Bedouin city of Rahat for the benefit of the Bedouin community. While the project will be built outside of the city, according to the piece, Rahat has been given a 46 percent stake in the joint venture that will manage the project, meaning that a good deal of the park's revenue will flow to municipal coffers.

The question is, does the building of this park, and the university within it, really solve any problem? Surely, in the western sense, it does. It will provide jobs for Bedouin workers, especially for women, who, according to the writer, are sorely in need of employment. Age of the Negev will direct financial benefit to Rahat, one of Israel's most impoverished communities.

But, the writer argues, the project deflects from the elephant in the room. The Prawer Plan, if passed by the Knesset, will force the dislocation of a great many Bedouin. The effect of the plan will be to try and "civilize" the Bedouin, moving them into communities like Rahat and Segev Shalom while expropriating the Bedouin's land for "state purposes." This comports with Israel's longstanding state interest in the "Jewishization" of the Negev, a policy reaching back to the days of David Ben-Gurion.

To Shimon Peres, the Age of the Negev is a shining example of Israel's plurality, its willingness to reach out to minority communities and do tikkun olam, the Jewish virtue of "repairing the world." But to the Bedouin community, it is just another example of a colonial power trying to displace its traditional way of life.

While projects like Age of the Negev are backed by good intentions, we have the results of the westernization of the Bedouin. Cities like Rahat are beset with poverty. Since most Bedouin don't serve in the army, many employers will not hire them, meaning that, unable to farm their land and tend to their animals, some Bedouin have turned to lives of crime. Ironically, this has had the effect of turning Israel's policy of civilizing the Bedouin into a massive security threat for the state, as some Bedouin turn to lives of smuggling on the Egyptian border. Unemployment and poverty are among the ingredients of radicalization, and one cannot help but think that Israel's policy towards the Bedouin might someday result in disastrous consequences for the state.

So while the government and organizations like the JNF introduce initiatives to "improve" the lives of the Bedouin, as the opinion piece argues, efforts like this are merely a smokescreen to deflect the true injustice being inflicted upon the Bedouin people. The cultural misunderstanding here is significant, and is a true impediment to successful coexistence between Jewish and Bedouin Israelis in the Negev.

-J.M.K.

Prawer Plan

Adalah and ACRI submitted a brief against the Prawer Plan this month. The controversial plan was formulated as a practical implementation of the Government's policy regarding the Bedouin, but opposition groups say the plan—moving beyond recommendations of previous committees to a positive effort at breaking up long-standing communities—will wreak havoc on the Bedouin of the Negev. A joint press releases states:

[T]he government is ignoring the facts and reality on the ground, failing to seriously examine alternatives, and proceeding with the clear intention of ousting the residents.  Such an implementation of the Prawer Plan would also constitute a gross violation of the residents’ rights under Israeli law to appeal against eviction and demolition orders as afforded to them by their constitutional rights to property, dignity and equality.

The organizations further contend that the Prawer Plan is simply a tool for furthering Jewification of the desert:

[T]he central tenant of the proposed law is the “concentration” of Bedouin in limited predefined areas which will force them to abandon their traditional agricultural livelihood, while industrial areas, a military base, and new Jewish settlements are expected to be established on the lands of the unrecognized Bedouin villages.  

Read the full press release here: http://www.acri.org.il/en/2012/04/01/prawer-plan-reservations-submitted/

Learn more about the Prawer Plan from Adalah here: https://www.adalah.org/prawerplan

Afforestation and BDS

One element of our recent trip to the Negev was learning about problems that hadn't come up on our radar while writing the preliminary report.  The topic raised most often was afforestation and it's use in displacing Bedouin villages, as well as it's use of water resources in the desert (eucalyptus forests—once used in Palestine to dry swamps and displace natives—use up a lot of water).

While we're putting together our final report, as well as coordinating video posts and photo albums, read a quick blog on the JNF from late February posted here.

The site, BDSmovement.net is a one-stop for everything BDS related. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement was also a topic that was brought up frequently. I'm in the process of tracking down a list of the companies and products targeted, but in the meantime read up here.

Now that International Water Day is over, get ready for the BDS Global Day of Action on March 30, 2012.

Here are a few photos: the first is a small forestation project underway through the work of the JNF, and the second is of the two most adorable Bedouin protestors, who gather every Friday across from fresh trees, not far from their demolished homes.

—DJH

World Water Day

Today is World Water Day and the Bedouin are getting a lot of press. Here is a video posted by Adalah, our host in Israel, and a few links below:



Here is Adalah's website with a few links to water rights reports and press releases.

And here is a post by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

UN-OCHAOPT Report on the Takeover of Palestinian Water Springs by Israeli Settlers

[ An IDF soldier naps in Ein Al-Qaws Spring in Nabi Saleh.  Photo by Alison A. Ramer ]

This month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory (UN-OCHAOPT) published a report on the widespread problem of water-spring takeovers by settlers in the West Bank.  The report ties this widespread and troubling practice to attempts to control vital water resources in the West Bank, and the development of a "settlement tourism" infrastructure.

The report calls on the Israeli authorities to:

1. stop facilitating the transfer of Israeli civilians into the oPt, including by allowing the expansion of settlements;
2. Restore Palestinian access to the water springs taken over by settlers, and ensure their safety; 
3. Conduct effective investigations into cases of settler violence and trespass and prosecute those responsible; and
4. Adopt measures to prevent ongoing settler “tours” to springs located on private Palestinian property. 

The full report is here:  http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_springs_report_march_2012_english.pdf

There is specific coverage of An-Nabi Saleh on pages 15 - 18.

Bethlehem and Bedouins

A lighter touch:



Bethlehem and Bedouins from Right2Water on Vimeo.

Nabi Saleh Protest

As our trip has ebbed onward, it's almost hard to believe just four days ago a few of us were in Nabi Saleh outside Ramallah observing (and, sometimes to our detriment, becoming part of) the weekly water protest hosted by the village. You can learn and see more at http://www.youtube.com/user/tamimipress

For now, we're uploading a quick teaser of a longer video that will include interviews with the family. There's so much work to do here, and we've rarely had a moment to sit down. Please enjoy the video and pass on the Tamimi's website.

Nabi Saleh 3/9/2012 from Right2Water on Vimeo.

DJH

Breakfast at Hashem Zane

March 13, 2012

Hashem Zane

We spent last night in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Hashem Zane, about 15 kilometers east of Be'ersheva in the middle of the Siyaj, the triangular region between the towns of Be'ersheva, Arad, and Dimona that marks the area in which Israel permits the Bedouin to live in the Negev. But although Hashem Zane falls within this area, the government refuses to recognize its existence. This has many effects, which will be further explored in our research paper.

But on a personal level, staying at Hashem Zane last night was a very, very interesting experience. For one thing, there was the fact that we stayed in a traditional Bedouin experience, meaning that we slept on floor mats in a house with minimal insulation in the middle of the desert. In other words, it was cold. But this was fine, as the blankets we used were unbelievably warm. More importantly, the hospitality of the Bedouin at Hashem Zane, as everywhere we have visited so far, was incredible. Attiyah, the leader of the settlement, has been so gracious in making sure that we have comfortable places to sleep and delicious food to eat. It is hard to understand how these people are so strong and gracious in the midst of massive inequality, but their passion (and their coffee!) has fueled us in our efforts.

Al-Araqib land recognition protest

Upon arrival in Be'er Saba, we went with a representative from Adalah to a protest beside the highway near Rahat.  Rahat is a government-planned Bedouin town, but the protest is about an unrecognized village nearby called Al-Araqib.

There have been over 30 home demolitions there in the last 6 months.  Every time, they rebuild, and the homes are torn down again.  Adding insult to injury, the villagers are billed for the cost of these demolitions, usually around 50,000 to 60,000 shekels for the equipment, employees, police, police animals, and even the portable toilets for the demolition employees.

As a means of peaceful demonstration against these demolitions, the villagers have arranged with local police to protest beside the highway each week.  We went to one protest, and talked with the villagers about the challenges they face.

- F.B.J.

Water Waste in Tel Aviv

Next to where we stayed in downtown Tel Aviv was a giant water fountain.  It was leaking gallons upon gallons of fresh water onto the street.

- F.B.J.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

Rockets in Be'ersheva

We arrived in Be'ersheva yesterday and almost immediately heard sirens. Tensions between Israel and Gaza have spiked of late, and being within the range of Grad rockets, Be'ersheva has found itself under attack. As jarring as it may be to hear rockets exploding overhead, life here continues after such events, and though we ran to the bomb shelter several times, all was, as the Israelis say, kol beseder. Of course, one can't help but think of the folks in Gaza who have no sophisticated defense mechanism like the American-made Iron Dome, which protects the Israeli home front from incoming rocket fire, or no Red Alert system, which gives residents of Be'ersheva seventy seconds to scurry to safety. Over fifteen have died in Gaza since the escalation began, and though none have died in Israel, many residents are in danger's way. It is our sincere hope that the two sides can come to some kind of reconciliation soon so that the people of this region may find some peace, even if it is merely a temporary one.

We now head east to conduct research in Bedouin villages, outside of rocket range.

Shalom/salaam,
J.M.K.

"We want our children to have normal lives."

In November 2011, a Palestinian woman named Manal Tamimi visited us in New York City to give a presentation about the non-violent Intifada that members of her village, Nabi Saleh in West Bank, have been organizing for the past two years.

Five months later, we were able to visit her at her home in Nabi Saleh where she lives with her husband Bilal and her four children. The entire population of the village consists of members of the same extended family, the Tamimis, who have been organizing peaceful protests to obtain their right to water.

The two hours we spent at her home were very emotional for our team members. Bilal and Manal told us about the death of their cousin, Mustafa Tamimi, who during a Friday protest in December 2011 was shot with a tear gas canister in the head from short range and died one day later in the hospital. We learned that since the month of Ramadan, the Israeli army stopped blocking the entrance to the village on Fridays, the day of the protest. However, the response by the Israeli Defense Forces to the weekly protests continues to be excessive, as evidenced in the photos taken by our team members last Friday.

During our interview we asked the Tamimis what they want from life. Their response was simple: “We want our children to have normal lives.” The children of Nabi Saleh live under constant fear of their homes being demolished, their parents and family members being arrested or even killed, as in the case of Mustafa Tamimi and many others. When we asked them how we could help, they told us that the best way to support the people of Nabi Saleh would be by telling their stories to others we know when we get back to the US. By posting our daily experiences on this blog, we hope to do exactly what the Tamimi family asked us to do: share the stories of the brave Palestinians that we will encounter throughout our fact-finding mission.

-S.C.

Nabi Saleh

Two of us went to Nabi Saleh for the Friday protest -- the protest is about an ancient water spring near the village that has been claimed by nearby settlers.  Every Friday, the villagers of Nabi Saleh and others from nearby towns come to demonstrate, and try to march to the spring.  They are met by armored jeeps and soldiers carrying tear gas.

Press and medical personnel show up every week, as do many international supporters.

- F.B.J.

The mission thus fas has been an eye opening experience.  From the Holy Cities of Al Quds to Bethlehem, the disparate economic conditions and vast discrimination is highly disturbing. - S.B.H.

Arrival in Israel

We have finally arrived in Israel! After a long flight we landed in the Tel Aviv area, where we were greeted by a wonderfully hospitable Palestinian-Israeli law professor who is hosting us for part of our time here. His wife cooked us an absolutely delicious dinner, which you can see below.

We went for a walk around the ancient city of Jaffa, where we learned of the significantly changed demographics of the community here.  Jaffa has traditionally been a mixed city, home to large communities of both Arabs and Jews, but now has mainly Jews living there.  We learned that in 1948, any Arab who fled Jaffa, as in other any other community in Israel, during the Israeli War of Independence, was made subject to the Absentee Property Law, which had the effect of expropriating their property to the state.  Even those who resided in their homes, but were absent during the census were subject to this law.  The state then could then sell the property on its own terms.

This is a house that was taken by the State of Israel under the Absentee Property Law; it is now being resold for an exorbitant sum due to the high property values in Jaffa, as high as in Manhattan.

Today, Jaffa is further losing its Arab community as a result of rising property values of once "absentee" Palestinian properties, having the effect of displacing Arabs who have lived here for generations with Jews escaping nearby Tel Aviv for lower house prices. While there is no facial discrimination against Arabs in acquiring or holding onto housing in Jaffa, we learned of many examples in which certain policies or developments have a disparate impact resulting in the exclusion of Arabs from the community. For example, we learned about a newly constructed gated community that advertised its complex to potential buyers as being Arab-free.

Today we head to Jerusalem to explore the ancient city and take in its complicated geopolitical landscape.

Robert Wright & Fadi Quran Interview on Water Access Issues

In this video, Robert Wright (journalist, author) talks to Fadi Quran (see: Stanford Daily - Fadi Quran arrested, detained in West Bank) about water access issues and inequalities in the West Bank.

Water Tribunal Refuses to Connect Unrecognized Arab Bedouin Villages to Water Network, Despite Israeli Supreme Court Ruling

A recent press release from Adalah:

ADALAH PRESS RELEASE
9 February 2012

Water Tribunal Refuses to Connect Unrecognized Arab Bedouin Villages to Water Network, Despite Israeli Supreme Court Ruling

Tribunal Calls Water Source 9km Away "Reasonable"

Arab Bedouin boy drinking from a rusty water tanker
in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab

(Beer el-Sabe, Israel) On 29 January 2012, the Haifa District Court, sitting as a Water Tribunal, rejected Adalah's appeal to connect the unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages of Umm el-Hieran and Tel Arad in the Naqab (Negev) to the water network. Tel Arad lies 4 kilometers from the closest water point, and Umm el-Hieran 9 kilometers away. Families in these villages sometimes resort to purchasing water at exorbitant rates from individuals who have access to the water network. The Water Tribunal stated that it considered these arrangements "reasonable", and that they met the standard of "minimum access to water" recently established by the Israeli Supreme Court. The appeal was filed by Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher.

Adalah appealed to the Water Tribunal in Haifa on behalf of residents of the villages against a prior decision by the Water Committee denying the residents' request for their homes to be connected to the water network. The Water Tribunal rejected the appeal despite a Supreme Court decision delivered on 5 June 2011 holding that the right to water was a constitutional right, and that the state must therefore guarantee a "minimum access to water" for the residents of the unrecognized villages (see C.A. (Civil Appeal) 9535/06, Abdullah Abu Musa'ed, et al. v. The Water Commissioner and the Israel Land Administration). In its precedent-setting judgment, the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to water stemming from the constitutional right to dignity. The Court added that Arab Bedouin residents of unrecognized villages were entitled to "minimal access to water" regardless of the status of their village. The Court then asked the petitioners to return to the Water Tribunal to make the necessary arrangements.

Appellant Mr. Salim Abu al-Qi'an, an Arab Bedouin citizen of Israel living in Umm el-Hieran, has represented his family and an additional 34 families from the village for the past several years in this litigation with Adalah. About 500 people live in the village. They have lived in their current location since 1956, when the residents were moved at the order of the military government from their ancestral land in the Western Naqab. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling three months ago, the village remains unconnected to water.

A second appellant, Mr. Eid al-Nabari, an Arab Bedouin citizen of Israel living in Tel Arad and head of the village committee, represents his family and an additional 40 families in the appeal, a total of 250 people. The village has approximately 1,500 residents, including 550 children. They have lived in their current location since the military government forced them to move there from their original villages in 1952.

In refusing to connect the villages to the water network, the Water Tribunal stated that two other solutions existed to ensure access to water for the residents: they can move from the unrecognized villages to recognized towns or else purchase water tanks and fill them from water connection centers in recognized towns. The appellants reject these solutions.

Case Citation: Appeal 51011-09/11, Salim Abu al-Qi'an, et al. v. Water Committee, et al.

The Problem is Not Scarcity

The common sense assumption that desert regions mean insurmountable water scarcity is no longer true, thanks to developments in water desalination and treatment technology.  As this news article points out, the Israeli water company Mekorot predicts a water surplus "within eight years."

YNet Environment - Israel to water surplus within the decade

Desalination poses its own issues, including massive energy requirements and, depending on the desalination method, negative environmental impacts on the seawater source.  However, there is no longer the argument that water is so scarce that the Bedouins cannot receive their rightful share.

- F.B.J.

The Name Controversy: Naqab vs. Negev

Due to the dispute over the land ownership, there are two commonly referred to names for the desert villages, each representing the ownership claim.

Negev:

The State of Israel refers to it as Negev as they claim that the Bedouins did not register their land under the Ottoman Empire or British mandate prior to 1948.

Naqab:

The Bedouins refer to their land as Naqab and argue that under the traditional land claims they rightfully own the land upon which they reside or from which they have been removed.

For more reading see Harvard Kennedy School report by S. Murthy, M. Williams & E. Baskin:  The Human Right to Water in Israel: A Case Study of the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev. Working Paper. January 10, 2011.  

Peace,

-S.B.H.

Naqab/Negev Bedouin Music played on a Handmade Harp

Jumma Mubarak (Blessed Friday), 

-S.B.H

Thank You! We Have Reached Our Goal!


Thank you to everyone who has supported our cause, as we have reached our goal We will be able to undertake the fact-finding portion of our mission.


Any additional funds raised will be used to purchase supplies for the Bedouins and Adalah, 
the legal organization advocating for the rights of the villagers. 


Please continue your support by following our blog and spread the word to raise awareness!


Peace,
- A.T.D.

The Unrecognized Communities Obtain Water In Two Ways

1- A Water Center. Photo 1.

• Water Source:  A "water center" located near a legal village.  

• Access:  Limitations are unknown. 

• How: The villagers must independently transport the water back to their homes. 

• Distance: Many kilometers (1 km = 0.6 miles).

• Villagers per water center: Anywhere from 20-100 people use the water coming from one water meter.

• Cost: Unknown.

2- A Roadside Water Pipe (Private Water Access Point).  Photo 2. 

• Water Source: Roadside water pipe. 

• Access:  Villagers may obtain permission from the water committee to establish this private access water point.  Permission is granted only if the applicant can substantiate "special humanitarian considerations" (term used by the Israeli Supreme Court's decision in Abadallah Abu Massad, et al. v. Water Commission & Israel Lands, Administration, 2011). 

• How:  Unclear, but it is not a household connection, thus it appears that the villagers must independently transport the water back to their homes. 

• Distance: Unknown, however the pipe is on the roadside. 

• Villagers per private access point:  Many families.  

• Cost: One person is responsible for collecting payment from other users and paying the water bill. 

Data and Photos obtained from the Harvard Kennedy School report by S. Murthy, M. Williams & E. Baskin:  The Human Right to Water in Israel: A Case Study of the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev. Working Paper. January 10, 2011.  


-S.B.H

$3,600 remaining!!!

We are $3,600 short of our goal!!!  If we do not meet the goal, then we cannot undertake the fact-finding portion of the mission.  Please support us today! 

Arizona senator introduces tribal water rights deal

By FELICIA FONSECA Associated PressAssociated Press

Posted:   02/14/2012

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.—Two northeastern Arizona tribes would waive further claims to water from the Little Colorado River system in exchange for the promise of groundwater delivery projects under legislation introduced Tuesday in Congress. Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, who has shepherded other key American Indian water rights settlements through Congress, had asked negotiators for the tribes and 30 other entities to lower the cost of what was once an $800 million agreement so he could introduce the legislation ahead of his planned retirement.

Tribes often trade what could be huge water claims for the promise of federal funding to deliver water to tribal communities. While Kyl's legislation identifies funding sources, the groundwater projects are largely dependent on appropriations and are expected to cost more than $315 million.

The Little Colorado River runs through the southwestern portion of the Navajo Nation. Some Navajos and Hopis strongly believe the tribes have rights to most, if not, all the water and that their governments should fight for it in court.

For more: http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_19961938

-S.C.

BBC In Pictures: Palestinian Bedouin

The BBC has an excellent photo spread on the Palestinian Bedouin:

Click the picture to go to the BBC article

Photo # 6 describes the water-carrying process for these people, and has a picture of the plastic water containers.

- F.B.J.

Israeli Water Law 1959

Water Law, 1959


This law establishes the framework for the control and protection of Israel's water sources (under the responsibility of the Ministers of Agriculture and National Infrastructure and of the Water Commissioner) and includes water pollution prevention provisions (under the responsibility of the Minister of the Environment).

The law states that all sources of water in Israel are public property and that every person is entitled to use water, as long as that use does not cause the salination or depletion of the water resource.

Article 1 states: "The water sources in Israel are the property of the public. They are
controlled by the State and are intended to fulfill the needs of the
population and the development of the country."


Article 4 states: "A person’s right in any land does not confer on him any right over a
water source that is situated in that land, or that passes through it or in
its borders, but the provision of this section does not derogate from the
right of any individual under Section 3."

Article 7 states: "For the purpose of this law, it shall be immaterial whether a right to
water was established by law – including this law – or by agreement,
or custom or any other way, and whether it was established before this
law entered into force or afterwards."

Link:
http://sviva.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Object&enDispWho=Articals^l2419&enZone=wat_law

You can find the complete text of Water Law 1959 here:
http://sviva.gov.il/Enviroment/Static/Binaries/Articals/Water_Law_1959.excerpts_1.pdf

-S.C.

A Somewhat Recent Victory for Indigenous Water Rights in the Kalahari Desert

Last January, a Botswana appeals court recognized the right of indigenous Basarwa bushmen to use a well on their traditional land, as reported by the BBC here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12300285

It's not the most recent water rights ruling, but an important victory for an indigenous group's rights to its traditional practices, land, and resources.

- F.B.J.

Forced displacement of Bedouins in the Jordan Valley

These videos are from one of today's posts by Aid Netherlands - a blog/news agency reporting on human rights issues.  While the speakers are Bedouins in the Jordan Valley, rather than Naqab Bedouin, they face similar daily threats and affronts to their basic rights under the Israeli occupation.

The full article is available here: Aid Netherlands - Thousands of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley Risk Forced Displacement, Says UN Body 

- F.B.J.

The History of Water Conflict in Occupied Palestine

A water tank on a rooftop in Al-Khaleel / Hebron, rendered useless after having been shot several times by neighboring settlers.

In many ways, it is impossible to study water rights of the Naqab Bedouins without considering the broader history of water conflicts.  In the Naqab/Negev region, as in much of the Middle East and other water-scarce areas, there is a long history of conflicts exploiting water as a weapon.

One comprehensive study of water conflicts throughout history (including everything from early biblical stories of conflict to events in 2010) makes it appear that the Middle East contains the most fought-over water resources in recorded history.  See: http://www.worldwater.org/conflict/list/.  Of note are many conflicts between Israel and neighboring countries over the Jordan River and other water supplies.

Water also holds a central role in the broader Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  Starting in 1967, Israel claimed state property rights over the water in occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, Sinai, and other areas.  This illegal seizure put 90% of the water in the area under Israeli control.

Although the Oslo Accords in 1994-1995 saw Israeli forces withdraw from some of those areas, and ostensibly included an agreement for equal water sharing between the Israelis and Palestinians, the disparity in water control remains.  Today, most Palestinians in the West Bank must purchase heavily taxed water from Mekorot, an Israeli company, even though much of the water is sourced from within the West Bank.  For an overview of this issue, see: Palestine News Network, Op Ed: Water As a Tool for Continuing Oppression and Injustice.

- F.B.J.

Palestinians' Water Cut 'To A Trickle'

Amnesty International has launched a scathing attack on Israel, accusing it of rationing Palestinians to a "trickle of water".

The human rights organisation says Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are being denied the right to adequate water supplies.

"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank," says the report's author, Donatella Rovera, "while the unlawful Israeli settlements receive virtually unlimited supplies."

It is claimed that total control of water supplies and discriminatory policies allow Israelis to use more than 80% of water from the Mountain Aquifer - the main source of water in the occupied West Bank - compared to only 20% going to Palestinians.

Palestinians are subject to the military orders controlling their use of water, while Jewish settlers in the West Bank are not. They answer to civilian Israeli law.

Israel denies 'rationing' water

The inequitable arrangement allows Jewish settlements, illegal under international law, to maintain swimming pools, lush gardens and irrigated agriculture, while Palestinians are often subject to rationing and shortages, says the report.
Israel disputes the allegations.
"We reject any charge of discriminatory policy," Israeli prime ministerial spokesman Mark Regev told Sky News.
The quantity of water Israel takes from the Mountain Aquifer is now less than it was in 1967, he claims. Israelis consume 66% less fresh water now per head than they did then. Palestinians consume 16% more. Although that still leaves Israelis consuming 70% more fresh water than Palestinians per head.
Teacher and father-of-seven Bassam Qdah has built a concrete water tank to collect rain water in his home in the village of Shukba.
The Israeli army has told him it will be demolished because it was built without a permit.
"We have seven young children," he told Amnesty researchers, "and even if we use it sparingly, we still need quite a bit of water.
"Why would they want to demolish this small cistern? It does not bother anyone and is on my land."

9:22am UK, Tuesday October 27, 2009

Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent

-S.C.

What Bedouin Settlements look like

Here are several photographs which I took this summer, while in Israel, of Bedouin settlements on the side of Highway 1, a major road stretching from Tel Aviv to the Jordanian border. Note that these settlements are located in the West Bank, as opposed to the ones which we will be visiting, which are located in Israel proper.

For comparison, here is a photo of Ma'ale Adumim, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and a large suburb of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim overlooks the above Bedouin communities.

-J.K.

Amnesty Calls for End to Forced Relocation

Just this past Friday, Amnesty International again called for Ehud Barak to end the forced relocation of more than 20 Bedouin communities to a site near the municipal waste dump of Jerusalem.  Nearly 2,300 Bedouins would be affected by the move.  Amnesty points out that this isn't the first relocation, and goes on to describe the living conditions Bedouins would face in their new neighborhood:

Israel forcibly moved Bedouin families to the same area in the late 1990s, placing homes as close as 150 metres to the garbage dump. Bedouin who live there have told Amnesty International that the site was unsuitable to their way of life, that they had had to sell off their livestock due to a lack of grazing areas, and that they suffered high rates of unemployment. Some have returned to the areas from which they had been displaced.  

According to the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, the dump receives up to 1100 tons of garbage per day, most of it from Jerusalem.  The ministry has stated that the dump site creates air pollution, ground pollution, and possible water contamination, is improperly fenced-off, and poses a “danger of an explosion and fires” due to untreated methane gas produced by the decomposition of garbage. 

The Bedouin, while having little or no contact  with Israel authorities about the plan, explained to Amnesty that they reject any plan to relocate, claiming that not only would the standard of living decrease, but that the Bedouin communities would be unable to practice their traditional way of life in the proposed location.

Israeli authorities have said the relocation is a matter of health and safety, particularly access to electricity and water. Amnesty has questioned the validity of that claim:

Israeli officials have emphasized that the displacement plan envisions connecting relocated Bedouin communities to the electricity and water networks. They have not explained why Israel can provide such services to illegal settlements and unrecognized settler outposts in the West Bank, but not to longstanding Bedouin communities. 

The water rights issue is dire, not only in the West Bank, but in the Naqab as well.  Amnesty makes a powerful argument about infrastructure, and some Bedouin groups are claiming Israel is violating international laws prohibiting racism. Stay tuned for that in my next posting.

In the meantime, read the full article and find Amnesty's report here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israel-cancel-plan-forcibly-displace-jahalin-bedouin-communities-2012-02-08

D.H.

We Still Need Your Help!

We raised $990 over the weekend, but we still need your help. Please, donate what you can to help this report and our advocacy work move forward. If you can't give financial assistance—spread the word far and wide. We can do great things, but only with everyone's support!

Water Scarcity in Central Asia

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Kazakhstan.  The former capitol, Almaty, is lush—a place almost as gorgeous as Kyrgyzstan to the south.  But in the southwest of Kazakhstan the Aral Sea shimmers in a dry valley, and barely at that.  In the 1960s, when the USSR was in full bore, the sea provided much needed water to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  The waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya (the rivers that fed the sea) were diverted for irrigation.  Since 1960, irrigated land has increased 100 percent, the population in the Aral Sea region by 140 percent, and the volume of the sea has decreased by 66 percent.
The Aral Sea stands out as one of the world's worst man-made "natural" disasters—rivaling Chernobyl, given that the population around the sea has increased.  Today, with the USSR left only in history books, a bittersweet sense of nostalgia in the flailing nations it once propped up, and the spirit of the Duma, Central Asia is left with unrepairable wreckage. And worse yet, there's oil to be had under the ever drying sea bed—a spill could cause even greater misfortune.

The Aral Sea isn't all lost cause, as some report, though it may appear so by first glance at the former ships rusting along the shore, and surfacing like rising dead as the water drops.  Hulled and graffiti'd the trawlers are a constant reminder of the disaster still taking place, but one that can be remedied with political action and smart water policies.  So far, none have taken, or even been raised, by the politically adept and able.  Worse still, nearby lake Balkash may face a similar fate, and likely won't get attention until it too hosts rusting fishing boats.
I spent a day visiting with a group of residents, most were teens and knew the "lake-front" as a place to drink or break bottles.  No one I spoke with thought of the dry sea as a disaster, just life.  What can be done?  The sea will dry, as it has.
I spent the afternoon taking photos—which went to promote a conference on Water Scarcity and

Water Rights in Asia.  They're still some of my favorite photos, probably because there is such a powerful—if not morbid—story behind them.
I'm looking forward to visiting the Negev and, with luck, we'll be able to use our images and information to promote new water policies in Israel before resignation sinks in.  Of course, not all the residents near the Aral Sea were worse off.  Camels don't need much, and the one pictured above seemed perfectly content.

D.H.

Israelis get four-fifths of scarce West Bank water, says World Bank

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 May 2009

A deepening drought in the Middle East is aggravating a dispute over water resources after the World Bank found that Israel is taking four times as much water as the Palestinians from a vital shared aquifer.

The region faces a fifth consecutive year of drought this summer, but the World Bank report found huge disparities in water use between Israelis and Palestinians, although both share the mountain aquifer that runs the length of the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have access to only a fifth of the water supply, while Israel, which controls the area, takes the rest, the bank said.

Israelis use 240 cubic metres of water a person each year, against 75 cubic metres for West Bank Palestinians and 125 for Gazans, the bank said. Increasingly, West Bank Palestinians must rely on water bought from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.

In some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians are surviving on as little as 10 to 15 litres a person each day, which is at or below humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemics. In Gaza, where Palestinians rely on an aquifer that has become increasingly saline and polluted, the situation is worse. Only 5%-10% of the available water is clean enough to drink.

The World Bank report, published last month, provoked sharp criticism from Israel, which disputed the figures and the scale of the problem on the Palestinian side. But others have welcomed the study and its findings.

Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli head of Friends of the Earth Middle East, said there was a clear failure to meet basic water needs for both Israelis and Palestinians, and that Israelis were taking "the lion's share".

"The bottom line is there is a severe water crisis out there, predominantly on the Palestinian side, and it will be felt even worse this coming summer," Bromberg said at a conference on the issue in Jerusalem.

He said the Joint Water Committee, established in 1995 with Israelis and Palestinians as an interim measure under the Oslo peace accords, had failed to produce results and needed reform.

The World Bank report said the hopes that the Oslo accords might bring water resources for a viable Palestinian state and improve the life of Palestinians had "only very partially been realised".

It said failings in water resource and management and chronic underinvestment were to blame. In Gaza, the continued Israeli economic blockade played a key role in preventing maintenance and construction of sewage and water projects. In the West Bank, Israeli military controls over the Palestinians were a factor, with Palestinians still waiting for approval on 143 water projects.

"We consider that the efficiency of our aid in the current situation is compromised," said Pier Mantovani, a Middle East water specialist for the World Bank, which is an important source of aid for the Palestinians.

Most went on short-term emergency projects with limited long-term strategic value. It was a "piecemeal, ad hoc" approach, he said.

Yossi Dreisen, a former official and now adviser at the Israeli water authority, disputed the Bank's findings and said many remarks in the report were "not correct". He produced figures suggesting Israeli water consumption per person had fallen since 1967, when Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, while Palestinian consumption had risen.
Israel argues that the water problem should be solved by finding new sources, through desalination and water treatment.

"There is not enough water in this area," said Dreisen. "Something must be done. The solution where one is giving water to the other is not acceptable to us."
However, Fuad Bateh, an adviser to the Palestinian water authority, said Israel continued to have obligations under international law as the occupying power and should allow Palestinians water resources through an "equitable and reasonable allocation in accordance with international law".

He accepted that there was a lack of institutional development and capacity on the Palestinian side, but he said the Palestinians were caught in an unequal, asymmetric dispute. Palestinians had not been allowed to develop any new production wells in the West Bank since the 1967 war.

"Palestinians have no say in the Israeli development of these shared, trans-boundary, water resources," he said. "It is a situation in which Israel has a de facto veto over Palestinian water development."

Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/27/israel-palestinian-water-dispute

World Bank Report: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/WaterRestrictionsReport18Apr2009.pdf