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“Climate change is a human rights issue. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), where land and natural resources required for climate adaptation are controlled by Israel, and systematically denied to Palestinians. Of all these resources, none are more vital than water.”
Palestinian girl freshens up at natural spring, Battir village, Bethlehem district, Palestine (Photo: David Kattenburg)
“In Senegal, Israel’s Mashav drip-irrigation projects were widely promoted as a major part of Israel’s contribution to the “fight against poverty in Africa”, and were helping farmers increase yields in 12 rural areas.
Then in December 2016, Senegal co-sponsored a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Angola endorsed the resolution.
Netanyahu immediately cancelled the Mashav drip-irrigation projects in Senegal, and recalled its ambassador from Dakar. Israeli aid to Angola was stopped. Israel also shut down the international aid agency in Angola that was bringing locals to Israel to learn about agriculture.”
97% of the wells in Gaza are too contaminated for human consumption.
An excerpt from an interview done by Sandy Tolan:
TOLAN: Palestinian Health Ministry studies back up Dr. Abu Samia’s observations. They note a doubling of severe cases of diarrhea, especially in children, and “serious increases” in kidney disease, and in food and water borne diseases, including hepatitis A, salmonella, and typhoid fever. The British medical journal Lancet corroborates that shortages of clean, safe water have contributed to sharp rises in diarrhea among young children in the Gaza Strip. Diarrhea is the world’s second biggest killer of children under five.
HASNA: If you really want to change the lives of people you have to solve the water issue first.
Mohammad Nimnim wheels water jugs, to fill at the mosque at Beach refugee camp. (Photo: Abdel Kareem Hanna)
MANY photos of daily life in Palestine.
Palestinian youth clean up a Gaza City beach on August 7. Mahmoud Ajjour/APA images