Thank you again for speaking with me last week regarding our concerns that the Western Governor’s Conference has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or alternate as speaker at the upcoming conference, June 14-16, in Park City, Utah.
I am writing on behalf of Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land, a non-profit group in Utah. We are part of a national and global network who believes a lasting peace in the Middle East is only possible when we bring justice to the Israel-Palestine issue.
We understand the conference’s emphasis this year is "to develop regional and globalstrategies for addressing the intertwined issues of energy, climate change and water" and that the conference organizers interest in an Israeli government speaker is to hear about Israel’s progressive or innovative practices regarding water use.
Israel does have a reputation for “making the desert bloom” and, if you visit Israel, you will be treated to plenty of lush-green countryside. Likewise, if you travel into the Israeli occupied West Bank, as three of us from Utah did this last November, you will see beautiful but water-intensive settler farms in the Jordan Valley of the Occupied West Bank, and settler housing developments boasting green lawns and swimming pools right in the middle of the very arid Middle East.
Unfortunately, those green oases come at a very heavy price, particularly for Palestinians, but also for Israel’s other neighbors and even for Americans.
For instance, this year, 2009, Israeli human rights groups are reporting that Israel has seized control of virtually all of the Palestinians’ West Bank ground water and the Palestinians’ share of Jordan River water. Israel distributes all of the Jordan River water and 80 to 85% of Palestinian ground water to itself and the illegal Jewish settlements. The remaining 15 to 20% is distributed to 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians are restricted to 10-60 liters of water per day, far less than the 100 liters-per-day minimum standard set by the World Health Organization for healthy living. Near-by Jewish settlers enjoy 350 or more liters of water per day.
We think the following additional issues should be of particular concern for the governors:
* Israel’s policy of seizing more than twice its reasonable share of the Jordan River water leaving the states of Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories unable to extract their allocation. (Reasonable share-- that allocation consistent with International laws governing trans-boundary resources.)
* Israel’s policy of unilaterally extracting and transporting of 97% of the Jordan River water out of the basin and into the Negev Desert resulting in critical degradation of the lower Jordan River and sharply declining water levels in the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
* Israel’s policy of discharging untreated industrial wastewater and untreated sewage from Jewish settlements onto Palestinian village land.* Israel’s policy of
moving polluting industries out of Israel proper and into the Palestinian West Bank, polluting soils and damaging citrus groves. Many of these industries cannot pass Israeli environmental standards.
* Israel’s policy of ongoing destruction or removal of more than 2.4 million olive trees and citrus or fruit trees in the West Bank and Gaza thus denying many Palestinians their livelihood and contributing to higher atmospheric CO2 loads.
* Israel’s policy of blocking fuel and parts necessary to operate and repair the Gaza sewage system; Gaza, for the last two years, has been forced to dump 70 million liters of raw sewage daily into the Mediterranean Sea.
* Israel’s policy of over-pumping deep-bore wells along the Gaza Strip drawing sewage and salt water contamination into the Gaza aquifer; 90 to 95% of the Gaza aquifer is unfit for human consumption yet it is the only source of freshwater for Gazans.
These ongoing Israeli policies do not seem consistent with sustainable environmental practices, nor do they represent regional or global cooperation in water use.
As taxpayers and concerned citizens we are asking you to choose a more appropriate speaker for this high profile Governor’s Conference, a speaker who can better inform our leaders as to how to truly balance sustainable water usage with the needs of the surrounding human communities.
We look forward to hearing from you regarding your decision.
Respectfully,
Frances ReMillard, Director, Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy land
--- is a coalition of peace advocates, civil and human rights advocates, faith based individuals, and others who promote peace with justice in Israel and Palestine. We believe that a true and lasting peace in the region cannot be imposed, instead peace must be based on justice as already set forth by international law and United Nations Resolutions.
