Episode description
Eyal Hareuveni of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem discusses how and why Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank face a chronic shortage of water. He is the author of a new study by B'Tselem called "Parched: Israel's Policy of Water Deprivation in the West Bank," which examines Israel's discriminatory use of water to control the Palestinian population under military occupation. Though Israel is a water super-power, producing twice as much water as it receives from natural sources, it limits Palestinians' consumption of water and prevents them drilling new wells or supplying water to needy communities. Nancy Murray of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine speaks to the toll the shortage of water takes on Palestinians' lives, health and economy and addresses the effects of this not only in the West Bank but also in the Gaza Strip,where 98 percent of the ground water is now contaminated.