According to an Amnesty International report, Israel is ‘using its “total control” over water supplies to discriminate against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.’ “Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor quality, subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford,” said Donatella Rovera, author of the Amnesty report.

It was discovered that ‘many Palestinians in the West Bank have no access to running water and the Israeli military prevents them from digging well and accessing rainwater. Israeli settlers, meanwhile, enjoy virtually unrestricted access to water despite a prolonged drought.’ Presently, up to 200,000 families have no running water, according to the report.

The report claims that 450,000 settlers have taken up residence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Six-Day War in 1967. These people ‘consume as much as or more than the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.’ Additionally, ‘between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities – especially in the Israeli controlled “Area C” which comprises 60 per cent of the West Bank – have no access to running water.’

The Israeli military often uses prevention tactics in stopping Palestinians to access rainwater by ‘destroying water-harvesting cisterns or even confiscating water tankers.’

Via The Independent