This year the 75th anniversary of the NAKBA or catastrophe is being remembered. In May 1948 the State of Israel was unilaterally declared. There was no acknowledgement that this declaration was predicated on the demolition of nearly 400 Palestinian villages, the theft of land, and the expulsion of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and homeland.
As we remember this horrific story of ethnic cleansing, including instances of massacre, it is important to be reminded that the NAKBA did not begin, nor did it end, in 1948. This story of dispossession and dehumanization began in the early decades of the 20th century; it continues until today, with the news of Israeli government officials urging illegal Israeli settlers to launch a series of attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank. Violence continues to escalate. Since the start of 2023, at least 174 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.
The continuing NAKBA is destructive not only of the Palestinian people, homes, and culture; it is destructive of the land and water and air. The story of water is particularly telling. Indeed, one of the most catastrophic and continuing consequences of the NAKBA is the impact of Israel’s policies on Palestinians’ access to adequate supplies of clean water.
The earliest Jewish pioneers established the first kibbutz in the immediate vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Kinneret in Hebrew, which is part of the water system fed by the Dan springs coming down from Mount Herman, through the northern Jordan River. When the British Mandate in Palestine was established post-World War I, the water resources of the Sea of Galilee, Lake Hula, and both sides of the Jordan River were secured to support the development of more Jewish settlements. Then in the 1930s, the settlers built the Degania Dam at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee where it flows into the southern Jordan River, thereby diverting water for use by illegal Jewish settlements, to the ever more severe detriment of Palestinian farmers downstream who have long depended and still depend on the river being fed by the Sea. Since then, the dam has been opened only when the Sea of Galilee, or the Kinneret, is completely full, which means less and less frequently. The last time the dam was opened was in 1995. The flow of the Jordan River, particularly to the south and into the Dead Sea, is now 97% lower than it was a century ago.
Israel has taken virtually complete control over water resources and infrastructure, in both the State of Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. This includes the Coast Aquifer, and the Mountain Aquifer, on top of which illegal settlements have been built strategically. The Israeli state-owned water company Mekorot has systematically sunk wells and tapped springs in the occupied Palestinian territories to supply these settlements water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use, while restricting the development of any water infrastructure by Palestinians. Israeli control prohibits not only the drilling of new wells, but even the collection of rainwater in rooftop barrels or in cisterns. In short, access to water resources and infrastructure has been weaponized as illegal Jewish settlements, and increasingly violent attacks on Palestinians nearby, continues the NAKBA’s dispossession and dehumanization.
In consequence, most Palestinians are forced to buy water from tankers that is of dubious quality and more expensive. Meanwhile, Israelis, including those living in illegal settlements, use three, nearly four times as much water each day as Palestinians do. This includes water for swimming pools as well as for lush and lucrative crops, such as grapes and medjool dates and olive oil brands for export.
According to the United Nations, “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity.” Indeed, the human right to water is indispensable for life, period. Moreover, under international law, Israel, as an occupying power in the Palestinian territories, is obligated to respect the human right to water. This obligation continues to be unfulfilled as the NAKBA continues.
Melanie Duguid-May, Rochester Witness for Palestine