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Page last updated
August 11, 2007
Understanding the conflict
Water issues
'One of my most vivid memories of growing up under Israeli apartheid came in the summer of 1993, when our house in Ramallah would receive water only three days a week. I remember driving one day near the colony of Shilo (back in the good old days when we could still drive between Palestinian cities) and witnessing the water sprinklers bursting at full blast outside the settlement to water the surrounding hills, ensuring the view for the colonialists was a little greener. Someone today will buy a house in Shilo, and in a few years, on a hot summer day, she will wake up to this beautiful green view, while I would wake up praying there would be enough water to shower.
Settlements receive around 10 times the amount of water per capita that Palestinian cities and villages receive. While we had to resort to buying plastic dishes to cut down on dish-washing, they would spend their days in swimming pools enjoying the lush green views afforded to them by their sprinklers.'
Saifedean Ammous Apartheid Comes to New Jersey 5th March 2007
A number of NGOs have produced devastating reports about the abuse of Palestinian water rights
1. B'Tselem Reports"Israel's citizens, like those of developed countries worldwide, benefit year-round from unlimited running water to meet their household needs. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from a severe water shortage throughout the summer.
This shortage of water affects every function that water plays in human life: drinking, bathing, cleaning, and watering of crops and animals.
The shortage drastically affects the residents' health and economic well-being. The shortage of drinking water can cause dehydration and the inability to maintain proper hygiene and thus lead to illness. Failure to water crops and animals affects the livelihood of the residents.
The water shortage violates the basic human rights of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories such as the right to health, to adequate housing, to equality, and to benefit from their natural resources. This harm results from Israeli policy, in effect since 1967, based on an unfair division of resources shared by Israel and the Palestinians."
a) Disputed Waters: Israel's Responsibility for the Water Shortage in the Occupied Territories
September 1998b) Thirsty for a Solution: The Water Crisis in the Occupied Territories and its Resolution in the Final-Status Agreement.
July 2000 - there is also a summary of this report.2. Miftah, The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
Water Resources in Palestine by Fadia Daibes Murad, posted 24 February 20053. The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) was established in 1993 to promote social justice through human rights. It has produced two fact sheets on the water situation in Palestine:
Right to Water in Palestine: A Background
Right to Water in Palestine: Crisis in Gaza4. Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information Articles on the Israeli-Palestinian Water Issue
A substantial series of papers, more or less technical, presented to the 2nd Israeli-Palestinian-International Conference, Turkey, 10-14 October 20045. Clemens Messerschmid Till the Last Drop: The Palestinian Water Crisis in the West Bank, Hydrogeology and Hydropolitics of a Regional Conflict. Two lectures sponsored by the Alternative Information Center, July 2007. Available as podcasts: lecture 1; lecture 2.
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