Israel slammed for appropriating Palestinian water supplies

A report by a Palestinian NGO says Israel has been practicing “water apartheid” against Palestinians, depriving them of their “rightful water supply.”

The report released by the Ramallah-based al-Haq organization denounces a “discriminatory access” to water supplies which allows the 500,000 Israelis in the occupied West Bank receive six times the amount of water the 2.6 million Palestinians there are given.

Titled “Water for One People Only: Discriminatory Access and ‘Water-Apartheid’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the report explained how the growing illegal settlements continue to reroute water to the Israeli water company.

It said as an “occupying power,” Israel is violating international humanitarian law, under which the regime have no rights over the occupied territory or its natural resources.

“Israel has extensively and unlawfully appropriated Palestinian water resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the sole benefit of those residing in Israel and Israeli colonies,” the report stated.

The NGO also blamed Tel Aviv for “maintaining a practice of extensive destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure,” noting that over 300,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are not connected to a water network.

Al-Haq called on Israel and third-party states to take immediate steps to end the exploitation and appropriation of Palestinian natural assets and devise structural changes to the management system for shared water resources.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has also criticized Israel for its continuous demolition of Palestinian water sources.