The Los Angeles Times Needs to Substantiate Dubious Charge About Reduced Water Flow Into Gaza - by Tamar Sternthal

CAMERA continues to urge The Times to either substantiate or retract the claim that the Gaza Strip is facing increased restrictions on the flow of water into the territory. Meanwhile, the paper continues its email campaign promising readers accuracy, quality journalism and truth.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Media Analysis..
12 April '18..

CAMERA has contacted The Los Angeles Times to request substantiation or correction of the dubious charge that water flow into Gaza is facing increasing restriction. In an April 6 article, Noga Tarnopolsky and Rushdi Abu Alouf claimed ("Death toll rises to 8 as Palestinians rally along Gaza-Israel border"):

For Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Europeand Israel, the rallies are an attempt to show force in the face of increasingly dire punitive measures exacted against it by the Palestinian Authority, such as severe restrictions on the flow of potable water and electricity into the strip, and what it perceives to be the apathy of the Arab leadership. (Emphasis added.)

The Palestinian Authority does not provide the Gaza Strip directly with either water or electricity. It does, however, pay Israel to provide electricity to Gaza. It has been widely reported that due to the conflict between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the PA cut off its electricity payments to Israel, and Israel has, as a result, cut back on the amount of electricity it provides the Gaza Strip.

As The Los Angeles Times itself reported in February, Hamas-PA discord has resulted in cuts in electricity: "In June, as a punitive measure against Hamas, the Palestinian Authority stopped paying Israel to supply Gaza with electricity, causing the drastic reduction in power." (See here for the corrections that CAMERA prompted on this Times story.)

For good reason though, Ann Simmons' February story does not note punitive measures affecting the flow of water into Gaza. While the Gaza Strip suffers from a severe water shortage, this is not due to any decrease in the amount of water flowing into Gaza, but rather due to a polluted aquifer and the energy shortfalls required to treat the water from subterranean Gaza, along with inadequate infrastructure.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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NY Times Again Errs on Cause of Gaza Water and Medicine Shortages - by Gilead Ini

...It is clearly incorrect to attribute shortages of medicine and water to a naval blockade by Israel and Egypt and other restrictions. CAMERA has called on the New York Times to set the record straight with a correction informing readers that shortages of medicine and water are primarily a result of decisions by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and years of overpumping from Gaza's aquifer, respectively.

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Media Analysis..
15 March '18..
Link: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=3880

A March 12 story in the New York Times attributes a shortage of medicine and water in the Gaza Strip to "a blockade by Israel and Egypt," even though Israel's security restrictions do not prevent medicine and water from entering the Strip, and are not responsible for the shortages. Instead, shortages of medicine are a direct result of political decisions by the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank government, and water shortages stem from the overpumping of water from the aquifer under the crowded Gaza Strip.

The piece, "The Mideast Plan Is Nearly Ready. Will either Side Read It?" by Mark Landler, refers to Gaza as a territory that "has been racked by shortages of medicine and water after years of a blockade by Israel and Egypt." Of course, the laying out of a sequence in this way — x happened after years of y — will be taken to indicate a direct, causal relationship between the two. (A serious newspaper wouldn't assert that "schools shut down after days of heavy rain," for example, if the shutdown was actually due to a teacher strike.)

Medicine

As Amira Hass indicated last month in Haaretz, Mahmoud Abbas's government is responsible for a scarcity of medicine in the Gaza Strip. "The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority government is responsible for the purchase of medicaments, but fails to send them regularly to Gaza," said Hass, a strident critic of Israel, in a Feb. 8 story.

She continued, "Some argue that the shortages are politically motivated, constituting part of the pressure the PA applies on Hamas. The question of why Hamas spends money on rearmament and on electricity for mosques and not on public health is being asked, but not openly."

The latter point was echoed by the New York Times itself in a Feb. 14 editorial about suffering in the Gaza Strip. Though the editorial, as most Times editorials on the subject of the Arab-Israeli conflict, did not spare Israel, the piece acknowledged that in the Gaza Strip "Money that should have gone to hospitals and medicine has been spent on futile confrontation with Israel and digging tunnels…."

The most Israel can do is to bring the liquid of life to the border, where it will only be met with chaos and darkness - by Smadar Bat Adam

...The fact is that the deterioration of Gaza's water aquifers is a perfect reflection of the deterioration of the Oslo Accords. It is not a military or diplomatic issue, but rather a refusal to take any responsibility for providing basic infrastructure that is essential for maintaining the most fundamental aspects of life – preventing disease and death. If only they dug sewer tunnels for the betterment of Gaza rather than terror tunnels to the detriment of Israel.

Smadar Bat Adam..
Israel Hayom..
08 February '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/like-water-for-gaza/

According to a 2016 Haaretz interview with Adnan Ghosheh, a senior water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank, the Gaza Strip will become uninhabitable for human beings by 2020.

This grim forecast is supported by the Institute for National Security Studies in a report titled "Water and Energy Crisis in Gaza: Snapshot 2017."

According to the report, the "lack of clean water for domestic use and unsafe sanitary conditions pose a serious public health threat to the two million people living in the Gaza Strip. By now, large amounts of untreated wastewater have already crossed Gaza's borders and created additional repercussions for several neighboring communities in Egypt and Israel, with Israel at one point forced to close two of its beaches."

When unlimited drinking water flows from the taps in Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, it is too easy to accuse Israel of unjustly dividing this precious resource, as self-righteous Israelis, and Europeans, sometimes do. These voices continue to condescend, absolving the local leadership of any responsibility. But it is the Palestinian leaders who actually bear the blame for this disgraceful situation.

The fact is that the deterioration of Gaza's water aquifers is a perfect reflection of the deterioration of the Oslo Accords. It is not a military or diplomatic issue, but rather a refusal to take any responsibility for providing basic infrastructure that is essential for maintaining the most fundamental aspects of life – preventing disease and death. If only they dug sewer tunnels for the betterment of Gaza rather than terror tunnels to the detriment of Israel.

It very well may be that in their heart of hearts, at least as far as water is concerned, the residents of Gaza actually miss Israeli rule. In the days of direct Israeli administration of Gaza, Arabs had access to the same good water their Jewish neighbors enjoyed, coming from 1,400 local wells. The drilling of the coastal aquifer was supervised and the water was pumped with great care.

But then, in 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and the water industry was left unsupervised. Unbridled drilling quadrupled the number of wells to around 6,000, with most being dug by individuals in crisis because Hamas authorities failed to provide the population with basic amenities. The lack of investment in a sewage systems resulted in the contamination of the water in the aquifers. Leaky pipes now lose around 38% of the water that runs through them, according to 2017 World Bank report. No one is even mentioning the notion of recycling waste water for use in agriculture and very little has been done to increase water supply through desalination.

Fishman's Gaza Water Libel Actually Unsupported By Gazan Academics - by Sheri Oz

...I guess Alex Fishman ran out of topics to write about because this month he raised the old issue of Gaza’s dire water straits.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
24 June '17..

Even as two engineers from Gaza tells the true story, Ynetnews publishes a water libel fable on behalf of Hamas .

I guess Alex Fishman ran out of topics to write about because this month he raised the old issue of Gaza’s dire water straits. According to Fishman the problem is because Israel is not willing to continue providing Gaza with free electricity:

The . . . large and modern wastewater treatment facility built by the World Bank in the northern strip in 2013 has yet to be activated because there is no electricity, and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is telling Hamas: Stop digging tunnels and you’ll get everything—electricity, a port, etc. That makes sense. But it’s exactly how Israel’s governments have been brainwashing us over the years with axioms aimed at preserving the status quo and serving political needs. [emphasis mine]

Pardon me for my stupidity but I do not understand what brainwashing is going on here nor how it is relevant to the fact that the World Bank actually built a “large and modern wastewater treatment facility” in Gaza that is going to waste because the Palestinian Authority (PA) refuses to pay for the electricity needed to run it (and to run everything else modern and essential). Is it not possible that the PA is refusing to pay for electricity as a way to make Israel look bad and preserve “the status quo and serve the[ir] political needs” to make Israel look like the demon and keep up the farce of everything is Israel’s fault?

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Dear Reuters - Actually, Israel is in the forefront of trying to fix Gaza's water woes

This is a perfect example of how anti-Israel propaganda gets inserted by reporters with an agenda. They have the conventional wisdom of Israel as the oppressor, and it is assumed to be true without any fact-checking.

Elder of Ziyon..
26 June '13..






Nidal al-Mughrabi at Reuters has a good sized article about Gaza's water woes.

A tiny wedge of land jammed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea, the Gaza Strip is heading inexorably into a water crisis that the United Nations says could make the Palestinian enclave unliveable in just a few years.

With 90-95 percent of the territory's only aquifer contaminated by sewage, chemicals and seawater, neighborhood desalination facilities and their public taps are a lifesaver for some of Gaza's 1.6 million residents.

But these small-scale projects provide water for only about 20 percent of the population, forcing many more residents in the impoverished Gaza Strip to buy bottled water at a premium.

"There is a crisis. There is a serious deficit in the water resources in Gaza and there is a serious deterioration in the water quality," said Rebhi El Sheikh, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).

There's nothing wrong with this topic, and this is accurate. But when the question comes up as to what is causing the problems, we read (paragraph 11):

Further complicating the issue is Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which activists say has prevented the import of materials needed for repairs on water and waste facilities. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent arms from reaching Hamas, which is opposed to the existence of the Jewish state.

Notice how the second sentence seems to support the first, as if Israel's blockade is aimed at water infrastructure.

Has Israel ever stopped any water projects in Gaza?

Not that I am aware of.

COGAT's list of projects from 2010-2012 lists a Rafah wastewater treatment plant, pumps for a sewage station, re-activation and upgrading of Deir al Balah desalination plant, improving capacity of CMWU to monitor quality water supply, building the Tel Sutlan sewage pumping sttaion, sewage projects in Deir Balah, replacement of Beit Lahia water network, a solid waste management system for all of Gaza, complete wastewater networks installed in the Khan Yunis area, installing pipelines in Khan Yunis, reservoir construction - dozens of such projects approved by Israel and implemented by NGOs like UNDP, USAID, UNRWA, the ICRC and others.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.

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Who is really to blame for Gaza's water shortages?

Israel has met and exceeded expectations in terms of the supply of water to the Palestinian people. So why are Palestinian and British politicians still playing politics with this issue?

Raheem Kassam..
The Commentator..
13 February '13..

The question is often posed: If their Arab and Muslim brothers around the region feel so strongly about the Palestinian people, why haven't billions of dirhams, dinars, riyals, pounds or even rupees found their way into large-scale development projects aimed at alleviating poverty in the Gaza Strip?

“But.. but... but… Israel!” the cry often comes. An argument that makes as little sense in theory as it does in practice. To get the facts straight from the outset is important, as misinformation propagated by the delegitimisers of the Jewish state often leads to erroneous beliefs being implanted in the minds of journalists, activists and, importantly, legislators. Take a look at what passed between Israel and Gaza just last week, here. and here.

How else could an Early Day Motion in the British Parliament have been tabled blaming the Israeli government for a situation that the World Bank claimed in 2009 would make the Gaza strip ‘uninhabitable’? But the World Bank didn’t blame Israel and a similar report by the United Nations stated that while Operation Cast Lead intensified the problems already faced, Gaza’s problems were “due to under-investment in environmental systems, lack of progress on priority environmental projects and the collapse of governance mechanisms.”