Israel steals Palestinian water

A Palestinian expert on water and environment issues has stressed that technical and political problems in Oslo accords signed between the PLO and the occupation authorities "left the main water sources in Israeli hands, limiting the Palestinian role as providing services."

"The problem was the postponement of solving the water issue in Palestine to the final negotiations," director general of Palestinian Hydrology Group, Abdul Rahman Tamimi, has recently said during a seminar in Ramallah, adding that "the agricultural water issue has not been addressed in the accords."

He pointed out that the Israeli occupation steals 82 per cent of Palestinian water.

Tamimi strongly criticized the Palestinian negotiator's failure in defending the Palestinian water rights in the Oslo accords, especially as it did not include the Palestinian right in the Jordan River water at the time it included the Israeli right to veto any future talks on the water issue and to confiscate all Palestinian wells.

The future of the conflict in Palestine and the Middle East will be over water resources, in light of the Israeli control over the Palestinian natural, economic and human resources, Tamimi explained.