The following incident, which occurred in late April, illustrates some of
the complexities of water management resulting from the Israeli occupation
of the West Bank. It is intended as a companion piece to the article
"Twenty Percent For Thee, Eighty Percent for Me" which appeared yesterday

Conversations During Confiscation
by Sara Reschly

Two months ago, the Israeli military, in conjunction with the Israeli
water company, Mekarot, confiscated several hundred meters of plastic
irrigation piping on the Jaber family property in the Beqa'a valley. The
Beqa'a valley is filled with lush grape vineyards, fields of cauliflower
and tomato plants, and orchards of olive, almond, and plum trees. Without
the ability to irrigate, however, the grape vines and vegetable plants
quickly die. CPTer Mark Frey and I went out to the valley to document and
protest the confiscation.

We began taking pictures of soldiers, police and the African workers that
the Israeli Military Civil Administration hired to remove the irrigation
piping. After I took a picture, one of the Nigerian workers yelled, "Did
you ask my consent?"

I explained that I was taking pictures to document what was happening.
The man grabbed the camera and threatened to smash it. After a few
minutes of quarreling, a soldier came over and told the man, whose name was
Edward, to release the camera. Edward was furious and said, "She thinks
that Iim from the bush. I am an educated black man. I have a bachelors' of
science. I studied economics for six years. The military ruined my
country. You need to talk to and take pictures of the soldiers, not me.
I'm only doing this work for today."

The conversation was cut short by an Israeli policeman, who ushered
Mark and me out of the field to the police van. He took down our passport
numbers and told us that we were allowed to take pictures but could not
disturb the workers.

We returned to the field and spoke with James, another Nigerian worker:
"We are taking pictures only because we want to document what is happening
here. We are friends with the Palestinian family who owns this land. We
have been living here in Hebron for two years and see many bad things
happen to Palestinians. We are only here to document. Can you please
tell Edward that we do not think that any of the individual workers are
bad; we think this policy -- the
ripping out of irrigation piping -- is wrong."

The worker was very friendly and said he understood what we were doing
and would explain it to Edward.

Mark and I then spoke with an Israeli soldier. I said, "This reminds me a
bit of slavery and of the injustices that happen in America. Israel
imports cheap labor from developing countries and then uses these workers
to do the 'dirty work' of the Occupation, like ripping out irrigation
piping, demolishing homes, and uprooting trees."

The soldier replied, "No, no. This is different. We don't just oversee
them (pointing to the workers down in the field); we work with them."

I remarked, "When I was having the scuffle with Edward, he told me I
should be taking pictures of you, not of him."

The soldier replied, "No, don't take pictures of me; you should be taking
pictures of the head of the Civil Administration." The soldier then went
into the field and aided the workers in confiscating the piping.

Roni of the Israeli water company, Mekarot, then came over to us and
explained, "We are working with the Palestinian Authority on water issues,
which happen to be a big problem in this area because there is not much
water here. The people in Hebron and Bethlehem do not have enough water
in the summer, and this is partially due to the fact that farmers in this
valley are illegally tapping into the main water pipelines. Mekarot gives
them enough water every month for drinking and household needs, but not for
irrigation."

He said that they were confiscating the piping because the Palestinians
were stealing water, and that if the Palestinians wanted their piping
back,
they needed to go before the court. He then said that no Palestinians
would ever do this, because they know they are stealing the water and
would then have to face hefty fines.

The situation is complicated. Perhaps Roni is technically and legally
correct: there is a water shortage, and the families are stealing water
to irrigate their gardens. But the issue of water becomes further
complicated when one remembers that, as agreed to in the Oslo Peace
Accords, Israel maintains control over 80% of the water in the West Bank.
The Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem estimates that 82% of the
fresh water that comes from the West Bank goes to Israel or Israeli
settlements. Only 18% of West Bank water goes to Palestinians, who make up
91% of the population of the West Bank.

In the Beqa'a valley, the Palestinians say they were promised water would
be piped in to them when the new road, which bisects the valley, was
finished. The families lost land for the construction of the new by- pass
road, but the promised water was not provided.

Last month, as a punishment for stealing the water, the Mekarot water
company shut off all water to the families living in the Beqa'a valley.
By now the water has been turned on again, but only enough for household
use.
Many farmers in the Beqa'a valley have not planted summer crops this year
and expect a reduced grape harvest in the fall.