Walk for Water Justice
On 22nd March we were joined by 250 Palestinian and international activists on a ‘Walk for Water Justice’. The walk went from Mak-hul to Al Hadidiya to Ras Ah Ahmar – three communities in the northern Jordan Valley that have faced persistent repression from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), through demolition of their homes, destruction of their water infrastructure, and daily harassment. In each of these communities men, women and children survive on around 20 litres of water/person/day. To put this in context, the World Health Organisation recommended amount of water is 100 litres of water/person/day, and in the nearly illegal Israeli settlement of Ro’i, average water consumption is 431 litres/person/day.
The IOF uses water as a weapon in its arsenal of ethnic cleansing, aiming to force Palestinians from their land. Each of these communities can see the lush green trees and fields of the nearby settlements, they can see the massive high pressure water pipes that bring running water to the settlements, yet they are systematically denied the right to access that water. They see the massive settlement wells that bore deep into the ground, to exploit the water in the aquifers below, yet Palestinians are prevented from digging deep enough to reach the underground aquifers, and if they repair or renovate their wells, the IOF will come and demolish them.
The Walk for Water justice saw the reality of water apartheid, visiting communities that have to collect all their water with tractors and portable water tanks, paying inflated prices for the water, plus fuel for the tractors to collect it.
Throughout the day the event was watched by seven IOF jeeps. However, the walk still succeeded in crossing the gate that separates Al Hadidiya from Ras ar Ahmar. This gate is at a break in the deep ditch that has been dug by the occupation to separate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank. It is opened twice a day by the IOF, but they often don’t come to open it – meaning children cannot get to school, and families cannot go to collect their water.
A report on the day has been published on the Freedom Bus website at http://freedombuspalestine.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/walk-for-water-justice-in-the-jordan-valley/
