Al-Jazeera,com: Comments made by the president of the European Parliament, in which he criticised Israeli settlements and implied that Israelis receive four times more water than Palestinians, has stoked anger in Israel.The speech, made by German Martin Schulz on Wednesday, prompted the far-right Jewish Home party to storm out of the parliament and the spat made the front pages of Israel's main newspapers. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett warned against Germans criticising his country, in reference to the European country's Nazi past.
...A European Union source who declined to be named said it was hard to find a more pro-Israeli politician in Europe than Schulz, and that he was "shaken" by a controversy that had overshadowed what was meant to be a positive message.
..."How can it be that an Israeli is allowed to use 70 litres of water per day, but a Palestinian only 17?" Schulz asked. The municipal water consumption per capita per day in Israel in 2011 was 250 litres, while among Palestinians in the West Bank ... it was 70 litres.
...The spat prompted several NGOs to publish their own figures on water usage, with Friends of the Earth Middle East citing statistics from 2011 showing the ratio was close to four to one. "The municipal water consumption per capita per day in Israel in 2011 was 250 litres, while among Palestinians in the West Bank, after taking into consideration an average loss of approximately 30 percent of the water - due to theft and lack of infrastructure - it was 70 litres," the group said.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem also said there was "discrimination in water allocation", with Israelis receiving "much more water than Palestinian residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip"....
The Gaza Strip viewed from a NASA satellite
No comments:
Post a Comment