Israel in Palestine: Apartheid

"For the Palestinians, however, the grass really is always greener on the other side of the separation wall. In the barren hills around Bethlehem, the earth lies arid and parched, and the sequestering of the Palestinians' water reserves by the Israeli authorities means that there's little chance of quenching the land's thirst.

Into the void have stepped four British post-graduates, who have set up a permaculture initiative in farmland on the outskirts of Beit Sahour. Nick, Tom, Alice, and Steve – all of whom studied at Bangor University - are undertaking a groundbreaking project to empower the local community, which has long suffered the effects of the crippling occupation and restrictions placed on it by Israel.

While their cause is both novel and noble, it is – unfortunately – a drop in the ocean compared with the relentless expropriation of Palestinian water and land by the Israeli authorities. As I saw in Maaleh Adumim, the flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention mean that the Israeli boast of making the "desert bloom" rings by no means hollow – for the Jewish citizens at least – and has come true entirely at the expense of their beleaguered Palestinian neighbours."

Seth Freedman on Israel and the Palestinians and their water. Please read.