UN: Settlers taking over Palestinian-owned springs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff, Sharon Udasin - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am

Amid the sprawling olive groves that surround Ein Al Ariq – or Ein HaGvura – outside of Nablus, Jamal Daraghmeh recalled the days of the 1970s, when he and fellow community members used to come to the basin to collect water for their village drinking needs and livestock. “We [now] have access only after coordination for the olive harvest, once a year,” Daraghmeh, the mayor of nearby village al Luban al Sharqiya, told reporters during a United Nations field tour of the area last week. Information from the tour was embargoed until Monday.

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Palestinians Hear the Water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours - (Opinion) February 21, 2012 - 1:00am

"On its face, the new rule allows the occupier (in a long-term occupation) to make endless use of the variety of objects found in the occupied territory," Israeli human rights group Yesh Din stated. "To pump its water sources, to transfer its archeological artifacts to elsewhere outside the territory, to use areas within it for garbage disposal, to sell public real estate, and more." In late December of last year, the Israeli Supreme Court dismissed a petition put forth by Yesh Din, challenging the legality of Israeli mining and quarrying operations taking place in the occupied West Bank.

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Europe should call Israel's bluff
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Dimitris Bouris, Stuart Reigeluth - (Opinion) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

The figures say it all. Over 1,200 Jewish colonists occupied outposts in the West Bank in 1972; in 2012, over 300,000 live in fortress-like colonies on hilltops overlooking the Jordan Valley, excluding the illegal colonies and gradual annexation of occupied east Jerusalem. This exponential growth of Jewish colonies has taken place mostly in Area C of the West Bank. There are now twice as many illegal colonists in Area C as there are Palestinians, who have diminished in number due to lack of access to water, building permits, and the occupation itself.

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The French water report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) January 22, 2012 - 1:00am

On December 13 the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly published a monumental, 320-page report on the geopolitics of water, penned by Socialist Member of the National Assembly Jean Glavany. The report dealt with two current international water conflicts: a conflict between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan over the Aral Sea Basin in Central Asia, and the case of the Jordan River Basin, involving Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank. In the case of the Jordan River Basin, most of the emphasis is on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

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Officials plan water plant to end crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 22, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Water Authority is working to establish a major desalination plant by the Dead Sea, its chief has revealed. The plan is designed to help ease the water crisis in the West Bank and Gaza by providing an extra 100 million cubic meters of water, Shaddad al-Attili said. However it will stand or fall on the approval of a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee, he told Ma'an after attending a water conference in Israel organized by Friends of the Earth Middle East.

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Israel to restore clean water to Jordan River
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
December 20, 2011 - 1:00am

ALUMOT DAM, Israel — Israel has pledged to release about 1 billion cubic feet of water to restore the biblical Jordan River. Israel, Syria and Jordan have diverted nearly all of the river's fresh water. The trickle that remains is mostly raw sewage. Last year, Israel began building a $106 million complex to remove the sewage water and treat it for agricultural use. But that would have left the river dry. In a statement, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan promised to start replacing the sewage with clean water in 2013, saying it will "allow life to return to the river."

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Erdan, PA agree: Increase water cooperation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Sharon Udasin - December 14, 2011 - 1:00am

While clashing on most issues fundamental to the Israeli-Palestinian water crisis, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and Palestinian Water Minister Dr. Shaddad Attili agreed that today’s operations must change and that cooperation between the two entities must grow stronger, at a conference in Ashdod on Tuesday. Since the Oslo Interim Agreement of 1995, the Joint Water Committee has served as the body responsible for allocating water to the Palestinians and managing the treatment of West Bank sewage.

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Palestinian seriously wounded at West Bank protest by Israeli forces
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - December 9, 2011 - 1:00am

A Palestinian demonstrator was seriously wounded on Friday when he was apparently hit by a teargas canister fired by Israeli security forces in the West Bank. The incident occurred during the weekly demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh. Preliminary details indicate that security forces fired teargas at demonstrators who were protesting the alleged takeover of a nearby spring by Israeli settlers. One demonstrator was shot in the head at close range by a teargas canister and began to bleed. He was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.


Life Without Water a Growing Threat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Eva Bartlett - December 9, 2011 - 1:00am

"Everything will be affected: drinking and washing water, sewage and sanitation, hospitals, schools and children," says Ahmed al-Amrain, head of power information at the Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority (PENRA). The Israeli Electric Company provides 60 percent of the Strip's needs, paid by Palestinian customs taxes collected by the Israeli authorities. Gaza buys 5 percent from Egypt and tries to generate the remaining 35 percent at Gaza's sole power plant, maimed by the 2006 Israeli bombing and destruction of its six transformers.

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Where Pilgrims Once Trod, Sewage Flows
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Arieh O'Sullivan - November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Mohammed Nakhal is normally a calm man, but he’s seething now. The stench of raw sewage is overpowering. It is rushing by, down the biblical Kidron Valley through the Judean Desert toward the Dead Sea where even you know what floats.

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