Over the last couple of months there have been conflicting reports about water ceasing to be supplied to peoples homes in certain neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Well, I helped organize a trip to go and check: there was no water in the taps. If you thought that the problems in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, Ras Shahade, or Ras Hamis have been solved -- you are wrong. There are a lot of different angles to the story, and we heard about them from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and other organizations that took part in the emergency meeting that I organized about three weeks ago (and ACRI deserves tremendous credit for its appeal abou the water crisis to the Supreme Court! -- you can read about it on their site). We went to see and hear for ourselves, to identify with the residents, to try to help -- and even to bring a symbolic gift of water. Having several tens of thousands of people left without water (within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem!) is a scandal of its own, but there is more. There is the desire of the government to have control over land without taking responsibility for the people living on it. Theres the ugly aspect of the Gihons role, Jerusalems water company that was recently privatized and separated from the municipality and simply does not want to invest in infrastructure (and is basically waiting for people to force the government to intervene so it can continue to overcharge on water without having to spend any money on bringing the water system into the 21st century). Theres the overall impression that yet again, the government is trying to avoid taking responsibility for providing even the most basic of services to people, Jerusalem city residents (albeit on the far side of the wall!) who simply want to live normal lives, pay city taxes and who have asked for (and some have received) water monitors . More than anything, this is a story that is a disgrace to Israel. The NGOS involvedin the work here, and I myself, will continue to support the residents but I ask that everyone reading these lines help put pressure, directly or indirectly, on the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality to invest whatever is necessary to see that the estimated 50,000 people living in this area get regular water service back. The Supreme Court gave the government, the municipality, and the water company 60 days to show progress in addressing the problem, but the matter is really just one of money and priorities-- that is, politics. The huge sports arena now being built in Jerusalem has already cost approximately 400 million shekels and its not yet finished. In my opinion , supplying water is a little more important -- and Im not referring to the water that will fill the swimming pool recently approved by the municipality to be built in Pisgat Zeev, a new Israeli neighborhood visible from Shuafat...
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 21:54:41 +0000
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