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Water.....the stuff of life


The disgraceful conduct of the Israelis continues unabated.    The Americans and other countries all bang on about human rights in this or that country, but when it comes to Israel, with some rare notable exceptions, total silence.   To cut off the stuff of life, water, is a crime.

"Taking our water is not like taking a toy. Water is life, they cannot play with our lives like this," says Maher Najjar, deputy general director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) of the recent Israeli threat to cut electricity, water and infrastructure services to the occupied Gaza Strip.

"Everything will be affected: drinking and washing water, sewage and sanitation, hospitals, schools and children," says Ahmed al-Amrain, head of power information at the Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority (PENRA).

The Israeli Electric Company provides 60 percent of the Strip's needs, paid by Palestinian customs taxes collected by the Israeli authorities.

Gaza buys 5 percent from Egypt and tries to generate the remaining 35 percent at Gaza's sole power plant, maimed by the 2006 Israeli bombing and destruction of its six transformers.

On Nov. 26, Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, threatened to cut Israeli electricity, water and ties to Gaza's infrastructure serving the 1.6 million residents of the Gaza Strip.

"This is the true meaning of collective punishment," says Jaber Wishah, deputy director for branches affairs at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). "Children, women, elderly, patients, students, all are subject to this threat."

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