Key Documents on Water Justice in Palestine
AWJP Materials
Every two weeks, the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine sends out a new succinct fact, or a larger bi-weekly brief, via email and social media, about Israel’s use of water as a weapon in its occupation of Palestine and other important developments.The facts point to, and keep in the foreground, the severity and deliberate structure of Israel’s ongoing assault. The facts are a reminder: This is what the Occupation looks like every day. Please consider receiving—and sharing—these weekly facts. To sign up for these facts, use the form on the Home page or on the Be Involved page, or email us.
One-page Fact Sheets
Israel’s use of water as a weapon devastates the Gaza Strip 4/11/20
Israel’s illegal settlements steal water from Palestinians 4/11/20
Israel controls Palestinians’ access to water in the occupied West Bank 3/8/21
Israel uses water as a weapon to impact the health of Palestinians 3/8/21
Israel’s occupation is destroying the fishing industry in the Gaza Strip 3/8/21
Israel uses water as a weapon to undermine Palestinian agriculture 3/8/21
Bi-Weekly Briefs and Water Facts
Bi-Weekly Briefs
Other Water Facts, 2016-2022
Leaflets
Water Inequality Leaflet (PDF) from the Alliance for Water Justice.
Water Is a Human Right (PDF) from the Alliance for Water Justice.
Slide Presentations & Videos & Radio
A Message to Massachusetts: Condition Aid to Israel. Produced by the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.
Israeli Annexation of the West Bank: A brief guide. Produced by the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace Boston.
This Week in Palestine. A report-back by Palestinian Rights activist Nancy Murray, who recently returned from leading a fact-finding delegation to the West Bank. May 22, 2022.
Reports, Studies, and Articles
Reports on Israel’s Apartheid Regime
Addameer and International Human Rights Council, Harvard Law School, Apartheid in the Occupied WestBank: A Legal Analysis of Israel’s Actions (February, 2022).
Al-Haq: Israel’s violation of international civil and political rights (January, 2022)
Amnesty International, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crimes Against Humanity (2022).
Amnesty International’s 14-minute video, ‘Is Israel Committing the Crime of Apartheid?’
Amnesty International’s 90-minute course on Deconstructing Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians
Human Rights Watch: A Threshold Crossed, Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (2021)
B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid (January 12, 2021).
Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (April 2021).
B’Tselem, Parched: Israel’s Policy of Water Deprivation in the West Bank (May 2023) This 23-page report outlines Israel’s use of water to exercise control over Palestinians, and the stark contrast between water available to Israelis and to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Who Profits Research Center, Dried Up: Mekorot’s Involvement in the Israeli Occupation (June 2023) Mekorot is Israel’s National Water Company. This 26-page report details its role in promoting Water Apartheid and its contracts with governments around the globe.
Middle East Eye, “Water Apartheid: How Israel weaponizes water in the Gaza Strip,” (March 22, 2023). An article for World Water Day by Nancy Murray of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.
Al-Haq. Corporate Liability: The Right to Water and the War Crime of Pillage (2023)
Palestine: Where Manufactured Water Scarcity Meets Climate Change (2022)
Gaza Water Desalination Plants: Health and Environmental Impact (2022)
Jordan Valley Solidarity Right to Water Campaign (2022)
Fordham University, “The Use of Water as a Weapon Against Public Health in Palestine and Kashmir” (2021)
UN High Commission for Human Rights, The allocation of water resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Including East Jerusalem (Sept. 2021) The report illustrates how the Israeli occupation policies and practices negatively affect the Palestinian people in terms of rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
UN Environment Program, State of Environment and Outlook Report for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2020)
MERIP's September 2020 report "Water in the Middle East" is a Primer by Jessica Barnes that provides an overview (together with graphs and a map) of the water resources in the Middle East and North Africa, and suggests policy approaches that can deal with water scarcity and the impact of climate change.
Julie Trottier, Palestinian Water Management: Policies and Pitfalls (September 2019)
Al Shabaka has published a briefing paper by its US Policy Fellow, Zena Agha, Climate Change, the Occupation, and Vulnerable Palestine (March 2019). The report gives an overview of what climate change will mean for Palestine, including its impact on the already precarious water situation. Also, from Al Shabaka, is their collection of analysis into a range of Palestinian natural resource issues. Although some are several years old, they are excellent, as are the more recent ones.
Impacts of Intermittent Water Supply on Water Quality in Two Palestinian Refugee Camps, by Shatha Alazzeh, Stephanie Galaitsi, Amahl Bishara, Nidal Al-Azraq and John Durant, in Water, an Open Access Journal from MDPI (March 2019). This scientific study of the quality of water represents a collaboration of refugee camp personnel and water experts from Tufts University. In addition to an analysis of their findings, it contains an extensive bibliography.
Natural Gas Exploitation in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin and its Impact on the Israeli Influence in the Region.This 2019 book is in Arabic but here is a comprehensive review in English by Fatima ‘Itani. The reviewer notes that since 2009, a series of major gas discoveries have changed the conflict dynamics in the region.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (March, 2019) This comprehensive U.N. Report examines the human rights situation in occupied Palestine, with particular emphasis on access to natural resources and environmental degradation. It blasts Israel's water policies.
UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People: Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (September 2019) The report details a collapsing Palestinian economy and has a section on the environmental costs of occupation, including Israel's control of water and its use of the West Bank as a 'sacrifice zone' in which it dumps its sewage and hazardous waste. It also describes how Palestinians are denied the right to exploit oil and natural gas resources and thereby deprived of billions of dollars in revenue.
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a two-page report comprised of charts and graphs entitled Gaza Strip: Early Warning Indicators-October 2018.
Other reports from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
Rand Corporation's 2018 Report: Gaza's Water and Sanitation Crisis is a comprehensive look at the crisis, particularly chemical and biological contamination and how this catastrophe could also impact Egypt and Israel. The article suggests steps that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a significant public health disaster.
OCHA (The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) (2017). 2018 Humanitarian Needs Overview – Occupied Palestinian Territory.
OCHA (The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Gaza energy crisis: limited improvement in water and sanitation indicators; concerns over waterborne diseases remain.
B'Tselem (2017). Made in Israel - Exploiting Palestinian Land for Treatment of Israeli Waste.
Elaine C. Hagopian: Historical account of the Importance of Controlling Water Resources in the Zionist Project (2016)
Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) program at Tufts University report (PDF). The Lajee Center and 1for3, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, invited a group of five graduate students from the Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) program at Tufts University to help assess water quality in al Azza refugee camp in March 2016. Al Azza camp, like most communities in the West Bank and Gaza, faces regular water shortages due in part to underinvestment in the water sector, deteriorating water infrastructure, and inequitable distribution of water resources between Israel and Palestine.
Water Consumption. Israeli Settlers vs. Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: A telling graphic—and this was before the 2014 assault on Gaza.
BDS for Palestinian Water Justice (PDF) describes the international laws regarding the role of occupier in providing for the occupied—including water rights—and how they are disregarded and violated by Israel. The article also discusses the extreme hardship of those living in the Gaza Strip who don’t have potable water.
UN Resolution adopted by General Assembly on 28 July 2010. The human right to water and sanitation. In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly (Resolution 64/292) explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights.
This article in CounterPunch cites the unheeded disastrous conditions of climate change by major world powers that have contributed to the ongoing destruction of water access for Palestinians.
According to this Inter Press Service article, “…the world may face a 40 percent shortfall in water availability by 2030.…despite improvements, at least 663 million still do not have access to safe drinking water. And projecting into the future, the United Nations says an estimated 1.8 billion people—out of a total world population of over 7 billion—will live in countries or regions with water scarcities.”
“Israel Controls More than 85% of the Land of Historical Palestine.” An unbelievably thorough yet succinct overview of Palestinian life.
Israel: Water as a tool to dominate Palestinians. Good summary article about Israel’s use of water as a weapon.
Gaza Strip
OCHA: The humanitarian impact of 15 years of the blockade on Gaza (June, 2022)
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, In Focus: The effects of Israel’s military offensive on access to clean and safe drinking water in the Gaza Strip (May 2021)
European coordination of committees and associations for Palestine: Catastrophic effects of the siege of Gaza (2020)
Water Shortage in the Gaza Strip Amid COVID-19 Outbreak (PDF) A September 2020 fact sheet issued by the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.
B’Tselem, Water in Gaza: Scarce, polluted and mostly unfit for use (September, 2020)
Rand Corporation, The Public Health Impacts of Gaza’s Water Crisis: Analysis and Policy Options (2018)
Context for Understanding the Grave Situation in Gaza
Home to almost two million Palestinians, the majority of whom are long term refugees, Gaza is one of the most crowded places on Earth.
From the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. Water Scarcity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In this article in the Swedish journal The Perspective Magazine, Nancy Murray from the AWJP and Abdullah Alrozzi, resident of the Gaza Strip, discuss the horrific water situation in Palestine caused by Israel's occupation and policies.
Water in the West Bank Reading List’ by Lily Cheng and Ada Rustow, Places Journal. This reading list utilizes key themes to look into water issues between Israel and Palestine including: water security issues in the Jordan River basin; drought and scarcity risks as a result of climate change; regional water management opportunities and failures; local water management strategies; opportunities presented by resource cooperation and the water-energy nexus; and innovations and opportunities with water management in the West Bank. https://placesjournal.org/reading-list/water-in-the-west-bank/#.YGdtChVKmJw.mailto
“‘Diseased water’: Gazans go thirsty as sewage and pollution poison wells”
Water pollution reaches catastrophic levels in the Gaza Strip. “Frequent power cuts in Gaza have made it impossible to provide homes with running water all day. With summer approaching, moreover, Gaza is threatened with a water scarcity crisis that has been compounded by successive Israeli military assaults and a nearly 10-year-old blockade.”
This Electronic Intifada article highlights similarities between Flint, Detroit, and Gaza. It addresses the structural violence that has created the inequities and denial of basic human rights, with a focus on the role of water.