Ramallah: The Palestinian Water Authority has complained that Israel purposely impedes its ability to carry out hundreds of Palestinian infrastructural projects in Area C.
Area C is under full Israeli security and administrative control and according to the authority, Israel will not grant official approvals unless the Palestinians vow to keep their mouths shut about even bigger Israeli infrastructural projects in the West Bank based colonies.
In a hard worded statement, the Palestinian Water Authority said that Israel intentionally impedes Palestinian projects which are financed by international donors.
The donors have allocated $542 million (Dh1.99 billion) to conduct those projects in the West Bank.
According to the statement, the projects include drainage, water and recirculation projects in the occupied West Bank. The statement said that the donors refuse to commence work before getting the Israeli approvals, but Israel refuses to grant the Palestinians the necessary approvals under the pretext that those projects would harm the Israeli colonies spreading in the West Bank.
According to the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians and the Israelis set up a joint committee to tackle Palestinian infrastructure projects but the last meeting of this joint committee was held in 2010.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have repeatedly announced that the Palestinians had not received the Israeli necessary approvals for many blocked projects. During this time Israel was not able to justify its categorical refusal to grant the necessary approval for the Palestinian projects despite the fact that tax payers in many donor countries had paid to achieve the dream of a two-state solution.
A senior official at the Palestinian Water Authority told Gulf News that the donors chose to start with projects involving water because it is vital and that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is shocked by the Israeli political blackmail. “The Palestinian territories stand in need for increasing quantities of water and had repeatedly urged Israel to provide more of water,” he said.
“Israel has demanded its colonies benefit from the Palestinian projects but the PNA refused.” The Palestinian Water Authority warned that Israel does not adhere in any way to the articles of the Oslo Accords after 20 years of signing the agreements. Israel fully controls the water sector in all areas of the Palestinian territories. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided Palestinian Area A and destroyed Palestinian water projects including wells dug by Palestinian farmers on their own farms without obtaining Israeli approval, which the farmers could not secure.
The official said that Israel does not allow the PNA to handle even the water tankers, nor is the PNA allowed to repair the water pipes or import any materials needed for water projects via Israeli ports.
The Palestinian Water Authority stressed that Israel fully controls the PNA in terms of water and does not give the PNA a room for even a small move in this regard. The official of Palestinian Water Authority said that Israel had made it clear to the PNA that Israeli approval for 120 infrastructure projects will be directly connected to a Palestinian decision to not criticize the Israelis conducting infrastructure projects in West Bank based colonies.
The Palestinian Water Authority has urged the international community to press Israel to secure the needed official Israeli approvals and to spare Palestinians from blackmail.
