Talking about water

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Since we're on the theme, I thought I could mention the newly published report from Amnesty International this week. It shows how water is distributed very unevenly between Israelis and Palestinians. On average Israelis consume four times as more water than Palestinians do. Israel controls the main sources of water at the West Bank, and spends most of it on Israelis. The average Palestinian uses 70 liters a day, while The World Health Organization recommends 100 liters.

In Gaza Amnesty describes the situation as critical. The only source of fresh water is polluted to the degree that it is unsuitable for human consume. The blockade and the war in December and January are the reasons for this.

To me what this report talks about is something that I have already heard about and seen myself. Driving through the West Bank, it is easy to tell settler houses from Palestinian houses. The latter all have black water tanks on their roofs, because the water supplies -as said in the report controlled by Israel- are sometimes cut off for weeks at a time, so Palestinians have to buy water to use in these cases. The empty roofs of the settlers speak their own language about whose needs are put first. So do the lawns and swimming pools that the Amnesty report mentions.

I have heard representatives of the UN and CARE International talk about the salty drinking water in Gaza and the severe consequences this has for the health of the people in Gaza. "Imagine to make your tea from salty water", the CARE worker asked. Israeli water authorities apparently don't have this imagination. They have already rejected the report as partial and false.

Here you can read what the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen writes about the report. Gjermund also has a comment there. You can find more information on Amnesty´s own website.

The bottom of the bucket

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In Norwegian we have the expression "bånn i bøtta" - the bottom of the bucket. It means that something is really miserable. I thought it was the right way to describe the olive harvest this year. We were told that it was fifteen percent of an average year. It wasn`t hard to understand as we walked from tree to tree in search of some olives to pick.

I asked why there were so few olives this year. The answer was that it had been too little rain. Someone also mentioned an unusually warm period in May. Olive seasons vary a lot from year to year, and it very well be that this year is part of this pattern. Still it got me thinking about the vulnerable balance on this earth of ours.

Some months ago I started reading a book about the climate changes by a Norwegian journalist, Klima - hva skjer?. There it said that not only are some parts of the world going to be wetter, but the dry areas are actually going to even dryer, because a higher temperature will make more of the moist stay in the atmosphere. After some weeks at the West Bank I have started to realize what an abundance of water we have in Norway, and I see how dependant people are on this resource. It`s hard to imagine how life will be in the Middle East with even less water, and trying to picture life at the bottom of the bucket makes me a bit worried.



If you speak Norwegian, and want to read more about the climate changes, try this website.

Why is it hard to pick olives?

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In two days 96 people are coming to Beit Sahour to take part in the Olive Picking Program, arranged by Joint Advocacy Initiative, where I work, and Alternative Tourism Group. The hope is that the participation of foreigners will make it easier for Palestinian farmers to harvest their olives.

Why is that difficult? One of the reasons is that farmers are being attacked by Israeli settlers as they try to work on their field. Often Israeli soldiers passively stand by as this happens, even though they are obliged by law to intervene, and at other times soldiers expel Palestinians from their own land. Another reason is that some Palestinians simply cannot reach their land. Sometimes it is unreachable because of the separation barrier, other times access to land surrounding settlements is made impossible by for instance patrol roads or barbed wire.

In some cases land is being closed off by Israeli authorities. They sometimes give the reason that this is to protect settlers from Palestinian attacks. However, settlers do not stay away from this area, but steal the crops that grow there or even live on and grow the land themselves. In other cases land is closed off by settlers on their private initiative. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem estimates that settlers have blocked Palestinian entry to tens of thousands of dunums (one dunum is 1000 square metres). Farmers who try to gain access to closed off land face a complex and little forthcoming buraucracy.

Agriculture is the main sector of the Palestinian economy.

An olive tree in Beit Sahour. If you want to read more about the situation of Palestinian farmers, try these two reports from B'Tselem: Access and settler violence

Oh love, aren`t you tired yet?

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What has kept me so busy the last weeks is the Witness Visit, a delegation from different YMCAs and YWCAs all over the world who visited the West Bank and their brother and sister organizations here. I had so many impressions during those days.

Some were impressions of brutality. In Hebron, we walked under metal nets that the Palestinian inhabitants of the old city have put up to protect themselves from stones and rubbish thrown at them by the Israeli settlers living in the floors above. In Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah a woman told us about her seventeen year old son who had been shot by Israeli soldiers. They kept the ambulance away until they knew he was dead. Another of her sons had been put in jail for walking too close to a settlement. In a checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem a child was crying because he had to walk through the security check without his mother. He was maybe five years old.

And still the greatest impression from the witness visit was the love. In Beit Sahour Nidal, my boss, gave a beautiful speech where he asked the international community to support Palestinians. I thought it was beautiful because I know that he has been committed to this cause for more than thirty years. What a faithfulness! In Jerusalem we met a young man from Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He wasn`t advocating his own rights, but the rights of his neighbours. Do I have the awareness and courage to see the wrongs of my own government like he does? Nyaradzay, the general secretary of the World YWCA, wanted to talk to each and everyone we met, the women at the food production centre, the young people at the vocational training centre. Everywhere she praised people for their hospitality, their good work and the care they showed for others. And she was right. In the middle of brutality and dire outlooks, mothers were still loving, young people still learning and hoping for the future, and children still trusting, smiling and playing. In his song "The Faith" Leonard Cohen sings: "Oh love, aren`t you tired yet?" It is not.



Nyaradzay and women working at the food production centre at YWCA, Jericho.



Children in the YWCA kindergarden in Jalazone.