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The Real Water Situation in Israel
(Los Angeles Times) Uri Resnick - Saree Makdisi attacked Israel on Monday in a Los Angeles Times op-ed over the water situation in Israel and the West Bank. On the eve of the Six-Day War in 1967, the Palestinians had at their disposal 65 million cubic meters of natural freshwater per year. By 2006, because of intensive Israeli investment in water infrastructure in Palestinian areas and increased access to Israel's supply, the figure was 180 million cubic meters. In 1995, as part of the Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinians signed a water agreement, which is still in force. Israel has scrupulously abided by the agreement and has over the years even gone significantly beyond it in the Palestinians' favor. The sad truth is that Israel's efforts to assist the Palestinians in improving the water and sewage systems in the West Bank and Gaza have largely been met with politically motivated refusal, causing severe damage to the environment shared by both sides. A combination of proper pipe maintenance, introduction of water reclamation technologies and desalination could have an enormously positive effect on the Palestinians' water use. Imagine if even a fraction of the energy devoted to making misleading claims about Israel were devoted to cooperation on water infrastructure. The writer is the deputy consul general of Israel in Los Angeles.