This World Water Day: We Stand in Solidarity with Palestinian Steadfastness
As we look forward to World Water Day 2023 (March 22) we look back to the founding a decade ago of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.
The Alliance grew out of a trip some of our members made to Israel-Palestine in 2013 where they had an up-close look at how Israel was using water as a weapon against Palestinians. Their tour included a visit to Al-Araqib in the Naqab (Negev) desert, which dates from the Ottoman period. This community of Palestinian Bedouin who hold Israeli citizenship is one of 37 ‘unrecognized villages’ within the Naqab which are not on the map and are denied services by the State, including piped water.
When we visited in November 2013, Al-Araqib had been demolished some 60 times since 2010 in Israel’s effort to ‘Judaize’ the Naqab, and force residents who made their living from herding and agriculture into bleak new towns which also lacked services.
We saw how Israeli soldiers and the Jewish National Fund were destroying buildings and uprooting Al-Araqib’s crops and olive trees. Having denied the village water for many decades, Israel was now irrigating water-greedy eucalyptus seedlings in the desert on what had been Al-Araqib’s agricultural land. We were told how, despite the odds, the people of Al-Araqib were fighting back, and rebuilding their houses each time they were destroyed.
When we returned to the US, we were greeted by a Boston Globe article describing how Israel’s miraculous water know how could be good for business in Massachusetts. It was headlined: “In Israel, water where there was none. Necessity and ingenuity made Israelis leaders in water technology. Now, seeing vast global potential, they are teaming up with Mass. innovators.”
The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, initially called the Boston Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, was created to disrupt the ‘Massachusetts-Israel Innovative Water Partnership’ that in 2013 was being established under the leadership of Governor Deval Patrick. For two years we mounted a campaignurging the Commonwealth not to be complicit in Israel’s theft of Palestinian water resources - and finally succeeded in bringing the partnership to an end.
Remarkably, the indomitable spirit of the people of Al-Araqib has not been brought to an end. As the eucalyptus seedlings grew into a forest that now surrounds them, as they have been physically attacked, fined, dragged to court and imprisoned, they have continued to defy Israel’s efforts to destroy their way of life.
On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, Al-Araqib was invaded by bulldozers and police vehicles and destroyed for the 214th time. And so the struggle goes on.
If you live in the Boston area, we invite you to join our annual World Water Day Stand Out: Wednesday, March 22 from 12:30 to 1:30 at the Bridge in the Boston Public Garden.
banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press