Accomplishments
Origins
The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine (formerly the Boston Alliance for Water Justice) was organized in the fall of 2013 in response to the launch of the “Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Partnership” based at the Mass Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). Then-governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick had led a delegation to Israel that met with the former head of Israel’s state-owned national water company, Mekorot, which exploits Palestinian water resources. According to the Boston Globe, the former head was “focused on one problem: launching Israel’s water technology industry onto the global stage. Massachusetts, he believes, can provide the platform.” Our immediate goal was to prevent Massachusetts from providing that platform.
In addition to speaking at forums and disseminating written information, we lobbied key members of the Patrick Administration, held four meetings with Mass CEC officials who were overseeing the Water Partnership and planning delegations to Israel, and provided detailed material about Israel’s discriminatory water practices. On World Water Day 2015, we demonstrated outside the Mass CEC office and spoke with its staff. Mass CEC officials received hundreds of post cards and telephone calls denouncing the Water Partnership.
We published a letter in the Boston Globe and several articles on Mondoweiss. One article included letters from children in West Bank refugee camps describing their difficult daily lives without adequate water. We read parts of the letters to Governor Patrick during a radio call-in show.
In October 2015 the Water Partnership with Israel was placed “on hold” for the foreseeable future.
This welcome news was tempered by the possibility that the Partnership could be revived: In late 2015 the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) organized a junket to Israel for a quarter of the Massachusetts Senate. Some senators expressed interest in knowing more about Israel’s water technology, and all appeared indifferent to the way the trip could be seen as an endorsement of Israel’s increasingly draconian violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.
After a November 23, 2015, press conference at the State House we presented the senators with “Ten Reasons” not to go on the JCRCR trip along with a petition signed by 1,200 Massachusetts residents. We continue to try to educate our representatives about the realities of Palestinian life.
Our campaign to end the MA-Israel Water Partnership was both important and successful.
Working in Coalition
• JAG and Anti-BDS Legislation
The Alliance works with other Palestine solidarity, human rights, and free-speech organizations in the Boston area and regionally. Along with Massachusetts Peace Action, Jewish Voice for Peace/Boston, and Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, the Alliance is an original member of the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG), which was formed in June 2016 to coordinate efforts to block passage of anti-BDS legislation in Massachusetts.
Starting in late 2016, JAG assembled a “Freedom to Boycott” Coalition to oppose such legislation. Throughout 2017 we mounted a vigorous campaign against a deceptively named “Act to Prohibit Discrimination in State Contracts.” We set up some 35 meetings to speak with individual legislators in key committees to inform them of the true intention of the bill that was in violation of the First Amendment. Over 100 organizations around the Commonwealth endorsed JAG’s “Freedom to Boycott” letter, which we hand-delivered to each legislator’s office. We also testified at a major hearing on the bill that was held in July 2017.
In February 2018, our organizing and advocacy bore fruit. The bill was effectively killed in committee when it was sent to study. In a guidebook that we made available to groups organizing against similar legislation in other states we outlined the steps involved in winning the Massachusetts battle.
The following year, there was another attempt to pass similar legislation, which we again successfully countered with visits to legislators and spirited testimony in a November 2019 public hearing. We continue to be vigilant on this issue.
In addition to its state legislative focus, the Alliance through JAG educates and pushes our federal congressional delegation to take the lead in making Israel accountable for its actions against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel. We have urged them to sign on to "Dear Colleague" letters and the McCollum Bill(s) in all of its iterations, among other efforts.
• 1for3, Our Sister Organization
The Alliance is fortunate to work closely with 1for3, which partners with Palestinian refugees living in UN-run camps. 1for3 (“One organization, three Palestinian rights: Water, Health, Education”) was formed in 2012 to work for better water quality for Palestinian refugees. Its newest water project, the Community Hydroponic Garden, is a 55-square-meter rooftop installation in the UN-run Aida camp, built to serve 125 families (over 800 people) with fresh food that they produce while using 70–90% less water.
1for3 holds an annual "Walk for Water" to help raise money for their many programs. We support the Walk by volunteering and donating. The Alliance publicizes 1for3’s work on our Facebook page, blog, and in emails.
• Other Solidarity Actions
In addition to our work with 1for3, we amplify the calls of Palestinian groups and US solidarity organizations. Our membership in the New England Network for Justice in Palestine has enabled us to share information and coordinate actions with other advocacy groups around the region. We also have connected with and publicized campaigns for water justice in Detroit, Flint, and Indigenous communities.
Amplifying Our Message
• World Water Day
World Water Day (March 22) is an annual United Nations observance, started in 1993, that raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water.
In 2014, the Alliance began organizing WWD events that have forged links internationally and domestically to connect the struggle in Palestine to wherever access to clean water is denied. That year, we helped plan a Grassroots International forum at the Chelsea (MA) Collaborative, “Politics of Water: From Palestine and Israel to Chelsea and Beyond.”
Our yearly commemoration of World Water Day has now included two World Water Day webinars, one WWD forum, and several WWD stand-outs.
In 2018, our stand-out in Downtown Crossing, Boston, was followed by “The Arc of Water Injustice from Palestine to Standing Rock: A forum on The Threat to Indigenous Water Resources,” featuring Nidal al Azraq of 1for3, Chung-Wha Hong of Grassroots International, Gaza water engineer Yasir Kaheil, Dorotea Manuela of Color of Water, Mahtowin Munro of United American Indians of North America, and Oglala Lakota educator Mark Kenneth Tilsen.
On World Water Day 2019 we brought our banners, signs, and leaflets to stand-out on the busy BU Bridge that crosses the Charles River from Cambridge to Boston.
For World Water Day 2020 we had planned a forum at the North American Indian Center of Boston entitled “Sustainable Futures: Indigenous and Palestinian Perspectives on Water Land and Self-Determination” that was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Our World Water Day 2021 webinar “Water, Health and Human Rights: Marking World Water Day from the US to Palestine” featured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Monica Lewis-Patrick, of We the People of Detroit, Mahtowin Munro of United American Indians of New England, Wayland ’X’ Coleman of #DeeperThanWater, Nidal al Azraq of 1for 3, and Jehad Abusalim of AFSC Chicago. Nearly 1,000 people registered.
Our World Water Day 2022 webinar “Parched in Palestine: Resisting Water Apartheid” included film clips of water struggles in the Jordan Valley as well as Palestinian speakers, among them Shatha Al-Azzeh from Aida camp, Mohammed Obidallah from Battir, Lubna Shomali from Badil Resource Center and Amani Bashir from “Green Girls” in the Gaza Strip.
• Stand-outs and Demonstrations
The Alliance holds numerous stand-outs, demonstrations, and marches. Our banners, signs, and leaflets have been visible at weekly stand-outs in busy urban areas and at demonstrations from numerous sites in the Boston area to the Elbit headquarters in New Hampshire.
Some examples:
We hold an annual demonstration on November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On November 29, 2021, the Alliance invited several organizations to join us in downtown Boston for a rally against the $130 million Massachusetts gives Israel annually as part of the annual $3.8 billion US government gives Israel unconditionally. We demanded a diversion of those funds back to Massachusetts cities and towns for community use in health, education, climate action, etc. The large crowd then marched to the offices of Senator Warren and Senator Markey where the Alliance delivered letters to each of them about the issue.
On November 19, 2019, dozens of Alliance members and supporters joined Harvard students in a silent protest at the Harvard Law School lecture given by the Israeli Consulate General in NY, entitled “The Legal Strategy of Israeli Settlements.” Protesters took over, then walked out of the auditorium after he was introduced, holding signs that read “Settlements Are a War Crime.” He was forced to deliver his lecture to a near-empty room. Students then joined the protest outside organized by the Alliance.
Every year on graduation day, Alliance members and supporters hold a large stand-out outside Harvard University and distribute material as thousands of people from across the globe pass by.
• Education and Social Media
The Alliance’s website is a clearinghouse of educational and downloadable materials. Reports, articles, graphics, videos, and Alliance-generated fact sheets provide vital information about Israel’s use of water as a weapon against Palestinians and Israel’s other discriminatory Apartheid policies. Bi-weekly facts and one-page issue sheets update the situation on the ground in simple numbers.
The resource section lists advocacy organizations in the US, Palestine, and elsewhere. “Contexts” defines and describes the background and history of Israel’s theft of Palestinian water.
Sixty-five percent of our website’s visitors are from the US. The others are from Britain, Canada, Malaysia, Germany, Palestine, Israel, Australia, and over 60 other countries.
The Alliance maintains an active blog (on our website) and Facebook page. Over 20,000 individuals and organizations follow us on Twitter. Our bi-weekly facts are also received by more than 500 people via email, many of whom then distribute the information to their lists. We have also created a short video to illustrate how the amount of money given to Israel each year could be better used at home.
Through our blog pieces and articles, letters to local papers and the mainstream press, participation in webinars, workshops, speeches and radio interviews, we spread our message: Israel is using water as a weapon against the Palestinian people.