Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
Thousands of Palestinian men, women and children are being denied access to the water they need by the Israeli authorities.
Unable to grow crops or feed their herds, Palestinian villagers are struggling to survive. In many areas, access to water is so severely restricted that they can't even grow small amounts of food to feed their families. It's a life-threatening situation.
Israeli troops have destroyed rainwater cisterns and frequently confiscate water tankers, tractors and trailers used by Palestinians attempting to collect water from further away.
By denying Palestinians water, the Israeli authorities are denying them life.
'Why must they destroy the little we have? What harm have we done by cultivating this small bit of land, so that we can feed our children? Why so much cruelty to human beings, to the land, to nature?' Samar Da'ish, a farmer's wife asked.

Following is a story of two villages – Susya and Sussia. They lie close together, but worlds apart.

In the Palestinian village of Susya, a woman sits by a dried out water cistern; the land around her is parched and barren. In the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Sussia, sprinklers irrigate vast green fields and children play in the pool.

This is not a story of natural disaster, but of calculated discrimination.

The deadly drought that grips the village of Susya has been deliberately created by an Israeli Government that is set on driving Palestinian civilians off the land they have lived on for centuries.

"Water is life. Without water we cannot live; not us, not the animals, or the plants. Before we had some water, but after the army destroyed everything we have to bring water from far away. They make our life very difficult, to make us leave." Fatima al-Nawajah, a resident of Susya, speaking to Amnesty.

Amnesty International researchers visited Palestinian communities throughout the Occupied Territories and found that chronic suffering caused by deliberate denial of water is now widespread.

AI/Ab