After the incident last week in which I was arrested for picking up and moving
a coil of irrigation piping about to be confiscated, it seemed that it would
be useful to look at the Israeli policy which led to this event.

The reason the families' irrigation system was being torn up and taken away
was because they had been accused of illegally tapping into an Israeli water
line for irrigation. Within the Israeli occupation's framework of legality
what they were doing was illegal. The larger context has to do with the fact
that Israel controls all of the water resources in the West Bank and Gaza, and
uses most of the water either in Israel itself or for Israeli settlements in
the West Bank.

In addition, Israel takes water from the rivers in the strip of southern
Lebanon which it maintains as a "security zone," as well as the Jordan river
and certain of its tributaries, thus depriving Lebanese, Jordanians and
Syrians of water.

"The Israeli "legal system" imposed on the Occupied Territories has given
Israel a virtual free-hand in shaping its policies for using and abusing
Palestinian water resources." A legal net has been created which prohibits
Palestinians from using their own water resources as they wish except for the
bare minimum of domestic requirements. ("Water: The Red Line," p. 35)

Since the majority of the West Bank and parts of Gaza are still under
occupation and are not part of Israel proper, Israel's policies in the area
come under the jurisdiction of international law concerning military
occupation. Among other things, these conventions state that "the occupying
power must not exercise its authority in order to further its own interests,
or to meet the needs of its population."
("Water: The Red Line," p.12)

Israeli policy clearly defies these provisions of international law -- law to
which it is either a signatory (4th Geneva Convention, 1949), or which the
Israeli High Court has declared binding (Hague Regulations of 1907). One of
the
first acts of the military administration of the occupied territories in 1967
was to declare all water to be state property, thus making it available for
integration into the Israeli system.

In addition, the Palestinians have not only been denied the use of this
resource in proportion to their population, but they have been systematically
hindered from developing their own sources of water. "Stringent controls
suppress Palestinian investment and development of water resources and
installations, while allowing for the expansion and development of those
resources supplying Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories." ("Water:
The Red Line, " p.42) Members of the team in Hebron have encountered many
cases which substantiate this point.

The United Nations itself found that, in light of these Israeli
policies, "it is difficult to see how the water-management system . . . can
operate without discrimination" (Annex to the Report of the Secretary General,
29 June, 1984).

In fact some families in Hebron have been without water for over 40 days. A
local Palestinian journal reported, "According to [Hebron mayor Mustafa] Al-
Natsheh, Israel has decreased the amount of pumped water to Hebron from 10,000
cubic meters a day to 5,000 cubic meters. . . The Hebron area is actually in
need of 25,000 cubic meters everyday." The UN has further stated that: ". . .
Israel's water policy in the Occupied Territories is a natural sequel to its
broader designs of colonising and ultimately annexing these territories." (UN,
"Water Resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory," 1992)

Even within the narrow legal framework imposed by the military administration,
however, the punishment of ripping out a family's entire irrigation system in
response to "illegal" tapping into Israeli water lines is all out of
proportion to the "crime." In this context I am once again reminded of the
saying that is displayed in the CPT main office in Chicago: "If what is moral
is illegal, than what is legal is immoral." Not only did the irrigation lines
belong to the family, but in fact so does a measure of the water they were
using.

[For more information, see "Water: The Red Line, " a May 1994
publication of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre. Also see the book
by Sharif S. Elmusa, "Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law, and the
Palestinian-Israeli Water Resources," published by the Institute of
Palestinian Studies, Washington, D.C., 1997.]