PLO accuses Israel of stealing water

The Palestinian Liberation Organization warned against continuing to keep Palestinian water resources under Israeli domination, and it considered it as undermining the chances for peace in the Middle East.

A report presented by the organization to the Arab League's general trusteeship under the title "Policies and the Palestinian water positions under occupation" stated that Israel persisted to use water as a weapon to exert political pressure and that it continues to steal and threaten the basins in Jordan, Yarmouk, Golan and in the occupied West Bank.

The report also stated that Israel pumps 140,000 cubic meters of water daily in the southern West Bank, 115,000 thousand cubic of meters of which are specified for nearly 35,000 thousand settlers who live in 31 settlements, and 25,000 thousand cubic meters for more than half a million Palestinian citizens in Bethlehem and Galilee.

The report spoke of an agreement that allows the Palestinians to dig water wells, but Israel has only allowed since signing the agreement in 1993 the digging of six Palestinian wells.