A Palestinian NGO, with Greek funding, combats Israeli limitations on access to West Bank water

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Date: 17 / 07 / 2007 Time: 11:05

Ramallah – Ma'an –

Munching on a cucumber and standing on a concrete cistern, the Greek Deputy Consul to Jerusalem said his government hopes to provide continued assistance to help the Palestinian people cope with limited access to water. "We are happy to provide any small help."

The cistern, as well as a pump and a device that collects runoff water were all installed by the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), and paid for with funds from the Greek Ministry of Foreign affairs. The Greek official, Christodoulos Margaritis, toured installations like this near Ramallah on Monday in an visit to PHG. Approximately seventy people use the water from the cistern on the land, mostly from Abdallah Beittlo's family, who uses the water to cultivate cucumbers. Beittlo used to work at the Hotel Gloria in Jerusalem, until his permit to work in Israel ran out some 14 months ago. Like many Palestinians, he relies on the support of his extended family to survive.

The aid division of the Greek Foreign Ministry has paid for PHG to build 32 systems like the one on Beittlo's land, as part of between 250 and 300 installations the Palestinian organization makes each year. According to Sireen Abu Jamous, the engineer who oversees the project, the systems use runoff from Palestinian rooftops, in part because collecting rainwater does not require a difficult-to-obtain drilling permit from the Israeli government. A report by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem revealed in 2006 that, between 1967 and 1994, only 21 licenses were granted for drilling or rehabilitating groundwater wells.

Ayman Rabi, Executive Director of PHG, explained during the Consul's visit that restrictions on drilling wells is only a part of the tangled problem of water access in the occupied territories. After leaving downtown Ramallah, the first stop on the Counsel's tour was a point at the illegal Israeli separation fence in Bil'in.

Rabi said that the route of the separation wall and the specific location of settlements point to "an overall policy" of limiting Palestinian access to water. "The wall was built strategically to push Palestinians toward the mountains," he said. According to Rabi, the water level in the vast Western Aquifer, which lies beneath much of the West Bank, is lower farther inland and in higher elevations.

Margaritis, the Greek Deputy Consul, condemned the construction of the barrier, which currently takes the form of a series of electric fences and razor wire in Bil'in. With smoke from Palestinian olive trees set ablaze by Israeli military forces rising on the hillside behind him, the Greek diplomat declared: "Nobody approves [of] this barrier… For the time being, Israel is an occupying power in this area; there are rules that govern a situation like this, but it's not the first time that Israel has disregarded the rules."

Bil'in is the site of a weekly demonstration against the Israeli barrier. Suleiman Yassin, a local man who attended last week's protest, approached the Consul, carrying an exploded tear gas canister that the Israelis had fired at the demonstrators, saying, "as soon as the demonstrators come, the soldiers start firing."

"It's not a reason to be discouraged," Margaritis told Yassin, adding, "My previous post was in South Africa, which has many lessons for Palestine. The first one is the struggle against Apartheid."

Aside from Margaritis' message of support, renewed Greek assistance to PHG for water projects is still unconfirmed.

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