One aspect of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians that supports the charge of Apartheid is in the systemic, institutionalised theft and misallocation of water resources.
Israel completely controls the water supply to Palestinians, denying them the right to collect rainwater, install pumps, dig wells or access riverwater. The Israeli military has gone so far as to assert rain is the property of the Israeli authorities when denying Palestinian villagers in the West Bank the right to build rainwater collection tanks. As a 2017 Amnesty report states:
“As a result, some 180 Palestinian communities in rural areas in the occupied West Bank have no access to running water, according to OCHA. Even in towns and villages which are connected to the water network, the taps often run dry.”
Israelis living in settlement colonies in the West Bank receive a significantly more plentiful and cheaper water supply:
“Water consumption by Israelis is at least four times that of Palestinians living in the OPT. Palestinians consume on average 73 litres of water a day per person, which is well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended daily minimum of 100 litres per capita. In many herding communities in the West Bank, the water consumption for thousands of Palestinians is as low as 20 litres per person a day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). By contrast, an average Israeli consumes approximately 300 litres of water a day.”
Read more about the Amesty report: The Occupation of Water
– Also read Al-Haq’s New Report and film on Israel’s Water Apartheid
– Finally: Israel’s violations of human rights regarding water and sanitation in the OPT – Report by Al-Haq and EWASH to CESCR (In particular Paragraph 42)