Southern water

ذكرت صحيفة «معاريف» الإسرائيلية، أمس، أن الجيش الإسرائيلي يراقب أعمال بناء البيوت في جنوب لبنان، بمحاذاة الشريط الحدودي مع إسرائيل، وهو يخشى من أن يستخدمها حزب الله كمواقع عسكرية ومراقبة تحت غطاء أنها منازل لمدنيين لبنانيين.
وقالت الصحيفة إن عملية بناء مكثفة لمئات المباني المحاذية للسياج، بدأت تظهر في الأشهر الثلاثة الأخيرة. لكنها أقرّت بأن «هدف هذه المباني غير واضح»، مشيرةً إلى وجود مخاوف لدى الجيش من أن تكون هذه المنازل مواقع خفيّة لحزب الله. واستشهدت الصحيفة ببناء عشرات المباني والمصانع، خلال الأشهر الأخيرة، في القطاع السياجي المحاذي للمطلة، وبعضها في أماكن لم تكن مأهولة من قبل اللبنانيين.
ونقلت عن مصادر عسكرية إسرائيلية قولها إنه «ما من شك في أن هناك وتيرة بناء عالية، وقد بدأ في الفترة الأخيرة ظهور عدد متزايد من المصانع التي يتم بناؤها بمحاذاة الحدود، لكن هذا لا يفسر شيئاً، ونحن نراقب هذه التطورات ولا نستخف بها».
ومما أثار الدهشة، بحسب «معاريف»، أن بعض المباني تم بناؤها في أمكنة قريبة من مصادر المياه في المطلة والغجر. وتم أيضاً «تشييد مبنى كبير، لم يعرف ما هو هدفه، على بعد كيلومترين من المنطقة المأهولة من كفركلا، وعلى بعد 300 متر فقط من الحدود مع إسرائيل».
ونقلت «معاريف» عن سلطات المياه الإسرائيلية قولها «نحن نشعر بأن استهلاك المياه في الأعلى (لبنان) يتزايد، وتجري برامج لاستغلال عالٍ لمصادر المياه، وإن هناك احتمالاً للمس بموضوع كميات وحتى بنوعية المياه التي تصل إلى إسرائيل».
كما نقلت الصحيفة عن رئيس اتحاد المزارعين دوبي أميتي قوله إن «هناك العديد من المباني التي يصعب اليوم معرفة نيات اللبنانيين منها، وهو ما قد يبدو تمويهاً لشيء ما، لكن شعوري الشخصي أن بعض المباني يستخدم كمصدر ضخ للمياه التي تصل من الحاصباني والوزاني».
وختمت الصحيفة أنه «في الوقت الذي يتروّى فيه الجيش من ربط طفرة البناء بحزب الله، فإن سكان المطلة القدماء الذين يعرفون جيرانهم لا يشكّون بذلك». ونقلت عن أحد المزارعين في المستوطنة قوله «ليس لديّ شك بأن الذراع الطويلة لحزب الله هي من تدفع سكان جنوب لبنان للبناء بالقرب من السياج»، مضيفاً «لقد حددنا لأنفسنا بألّا نسمح لأيّ أمر بأن يضرّ بعملنا وبروتين حياتنا القائم في الوقائع الجديدة منذ حرب لبنان الثانية».

عدد الجمعة ١٠ آب

From today's Al-Akhbar, a small news item within the article on Ron Arad (that's why i didn't link). This item is interesting: it says that Maarev has reported that the israeli army is following closely the building of "large houses" near the Israeli border (note: in Lebanon), which are causing concern as the goal of these buildings is "unclear" (???). Maarev also reports from the israeli water authority its concerns about what it perceives as an increase in water consumption in ...Lebanon, which will affect the quantity of water that reaches Israel and also its quality. One of the farmers in the colonial outpost of metullah said he believes these houses are camouflaged pumping stations. He adds that the colonizers in Metullah know their Lebanese neighbors well, and that they have no doubt this is a hizbullah conspiracy to use...Lebanese water.

Now this is really interesting because it brings the whole issue of southern water back to the surface: there is no doubt that Israel's colonial outposts in northern Palestine (moshavs and kibbutz) are in dire need for water, especially for irrigation, if they are to continue fulfilling their function (see previous post on Aytaroun and moshav avivim). This water comes from only one place: Lebanon, especially the hasbani river watershed. The water allocation between Lebanon and Israel is still regulated by the Johnston agreement of 1955. But Israel has regularly used force to prevent the Lebanese from using their share of water. Here's a self explanatory excerpt from a report published on the UN foreign Policy Forum:

"...the potential for future tension over the use of water from the Hasbani river. The Hasbani flows down the western flank of the tri-border pocket, passing Ghajar and crossing the Lebanon-Israel border three kilometers south of the village. It feeds into the Upper Jordan and runs into the Sea of Galilee, the Jewish state's largest supply of surface water. The Wazzani springs beside Ghajar are the only source of water for the river during the hot dry summer months.

Last March, the Council for the South installed a small pump and a pipe 10 centimeters in diameter to supply drinking water from the Wazzani springs to the nearby village of Arab Louaize. In response, Israel warned that unchecked pumping of the Hasbani's water could spark a war.

Tempers flared again in June when a local farmer, Hussein Abdullah, announced that he intended to pump water from the Hasbani, one kilometer below the Wazzani springs, via an 18-centimeter pipe to irrigate some 3,000 dunums of land he owned nearby.

Although the amount of water being diverted from the river is inconsequential, the UN is aware that, given Israel's acute water shortage, an argument over the Hasbani could spark a more serious confrontation than the recent heated rhetoric.

An attempt in the 1960s to divert the Hasbani away from Israel led to a series of military confrontations, culminating in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The figures on the Hasbani's water flow are vague, varying between 110 million cubic meters (mcm) per year to 146mcm. The 1955 Johnston Agreement on regional water sharing which was never fully ratified allocated to Lebanon 35mcm per year of water from the Hasbani. But Lebanon is not believed to be utilizing more than 10mcm per year."

Israel has bombed countless times governmental installations to pump Lebanese water, as well as small scale farmer's pumps. As my friend Angry Arab would say: "This is Zionism".

Like mushrooms

"In April the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INNPPA) invited me to experience the area's environmental problems - the first step of a collaboration coordinated by the Quebec-Labrador Foundation, an NGO based in Ipswich, Mass. The program brings together conservationists from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, who will use traditional folk stories to teach about the environment."

Like mushrooms

Learning to fish

"When talking about fish, one would hardly think about Israel. The country is known for oil, and more recently, on its war against Lebanon. However, it turned out that fish is a very important part of Israeli economy and agriculture. In the last half decade, Israel has become one of the top fish exporters to the European Union, a development that boosted its economy. Israel is now counted among countries like China, Japan, and Singapore with the distinction of producing the best quality fish. Among these fish exporters, it is notable that Israel is the only Middle Eastern nation, a clear delineation from the oil industry.

However, the fish exports from Israel cost more than the Far Eastern variety. According to market data, Israeli fish exporters price their bounty by at least 10% higher than Far Eastern fish. The Israel fish industry sees no problem in this price disparity. Apparently, the EU does not consider higher prices as problems. Simon claims that their clients in the EU are willing to pay the price in exchange for getting quality fish. Studies have shown that Israeli bounty lives longer than Far Eastern catch, making them fresher. "

Land without People?

"Several Arab institutions and parties in Israel started preparations to counter a new Israeli plan that aims at annexing thousands of dunams from Arab villages in the Galilee in order to expand the district of the Maali Yousef regional council in the Western Galilee.

The plan includes grabbing lands that belong to several Arab villages, such as Kisra, Al Bqei'a, Kufur Samee', and Yanouh, which are all known for their green landscape and fertile agricultural lands. The project was approved by the Israeli Interior Ministry.

Several Israeli media outlets revealed important information regarding the project which will annex 2500 dunams from Kisra village, 300 dunams from Yanouh, and more blocs of land which belong to residents of Al Bqei'a, these lands are estimated to be thousands of dunams."

Israel destroys Lebanon but offers to help government

"KKL-JNF World Chairman Efi Stenzler has announced that as soon as Israel and Lebanon are on their way to establishing peaceful relations, he will be happy to extend KKL-JNF's international activities northwards and help the Lebanese government to rehabilitate its country's environment."

Israel's legacy

"In a country where agriculture accounts for seven percent of gross domestic product, the war and continuing threat from cluster bombs have caused losses to many in rural areas.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated last November that the conflict had caused losses of 280 million dollars in potential earnings."

Growing occupation

"Yuval Katzir, 26 years old, a guide at the Ayalon Institute Bullet Factory in Rehovot, Israel, is one of 23 members of the new kibbutz located at the site and also a reserve paratrooper in the Israeli army. He spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Waldman about the kibbutz movement. Below, an edited transcript. (See related article.)
WSJ: Why are you trying to create a new kibbutz movement, after so many kibbutzim have failed in recent years?
Mr. Katzir: A kibbutz is not a place; it's an idea. We're not focusing on agriculture but education."

For those who read and liked the post on Aytaroun, here's more about kibbutz from the wall street journal. See also this link for a post on changes in the moshav and kibbutz culture in Israel. Extremely interesting.

The children of Aytaroun

I went to Aytaroun a few days ago to check the possibility of expanding the work of Land and People there. Aytaroun is a small village right by the border, near Maroun el Ras and Bint Jbeil. Since the early 70’s, Aytaroun has been an active war zone. While the rest of Lebanon was still enjoying the oil boom of the 60’s, it was regularly bombed by the Israeli army which made frequent incursions in the region. Aytaroun was immortalized in 1975 through a song by communist singer Khaled el Haber that went:

“Your children Aytaroun dance in the trenches
Their toys are guns
Your children Aytaroun chant in jubilation
They sing an ancient melody:
lets resist! lets resist!”

The song was written as a eulogy for of a group of school children who had died as a result of an Israeli bombing episode.

Aytaroun went from war to war and through various periods of occupation until the liberation of the South in 2000. The Israeli war on Lebanon of July-August 2006 resulted in the near total razing of the village, although the Israelis were unable to occupy it.

As elsewhere in the South, especially in the area south of the Litani, farming is a major source of income in Aytaroun. Tobacco forms the bulk of the local produce: 80% of the farmers rely on it as a main source of income. Tobacco is important for 2 reasons:

1. It is a dryland crop. There is no irrigation water available in Aytaroun. The land is very fertile, but groundwater is at 600m depth, and irrigation would be uneconomical considering the price of fuel needed to pump water from this depth.

2. It is “subsidized”: the Lebanese government subsidizes the Regie Libanaise des Tabacs et des Tombacs, a semi-autonomous body largely under government control, which in turn purchases the tobacco from farmers at prices higher than international market price. The amount a farmer can sell is fixed, and depends on a special permit delivered by the Regie. The average annual gross income for a tobacco farmer is LBP 4.5 million or $3,000. Nearly half of the tobacco farmers of Lebanon are in the South. This is why tobacco has been called “the crop of steadfastness” (mahsoul al soumoud). Without tobacco farming, migration from the south would have intensified, and its villages would have become depopulated.

My visit to Aytaroun came in response to a local request for help in finding alternative crops to tobacco. I have been receiving similar requests since the end of the 2006 war, from villages in the Deep South. The southern farmers are worried that the Sanioura government might stop the tobacco subsidies, and not replace them with other subsidies. Since the Hariri times, Sanioura and his ultra-neo-liberal team has been pushing for the lifting of the tobacco subsidies, calling it a drain on the national economy. These are surprising requests at a time when one would assume that the government has other cats to flog. Still, there is genuine concern in the South that the tobacco subsidies may be lifted, and that the livelihoods of the local people would suddenly take a dip.

I went around the place and visited the main farming areas of the village. Right by the border with occupied Palestine, there is a large plain of several thousand hectares nearly all planted with tobacco or wheat in rotation. Its altitude (700 meters) makes perfect for many fruit trees. The barbed fence passes right through the plain, and about one third of it is under Israeli occupation.

To say that the Israeli occupied part looks like it could be in another country is an overused cliché. The hilly parts are forested, and there are vast fruit tree orchards. There is a large packing plant, belonging, I guess, to moshav Avivim which is right across the border and is home to a couple of hundred settlers. The roads are asphalted and the fields drawn with a ruler. Clearly, some serious farming is taking place there.

Since the creation of the first settlements in Palestine, farming has been a major angle of attack of the Zionists. They thought that working the land, vivifying it, investing in it and fostering attachment to it will create a “de facto” situation which will make the Zionist state come true. Over the years, they invested tremendous sums in the various kibbutz and moshav making Israeli agriculture one of the least economically efficient in the world today. It swallows large amounts of money from the state’s coffers to the dismay of many Israeli economists. But it has been, and remains, a political success. The kibbutz and the moshav produce the bulk of the radical forces in Israel. They have been used extensively to attract western youth and create sympathy towards Israel. The technology used in the settlements (regardless of the financial bill) has helped the Zionist state carve a niche in the field of agricultural development. Special trade agreements granted by most nations of the world to the State of Israel facilitate the export of (subsidized) Israeli goods. They provide an opportunity for advertisement deep into families and households. Israeli produce is a tremendous propaganda tool, and a very successful one.

In spite of frequent calls to end the subsidies by some economists, Israeli politicians continue unabatedly to support the agricultural settlements. Moshav Avivim, located a few kilometers away from the destroyed Aytaroun village and from its poor tobacco fields, stands witness to that.

In Aytaroun, there are stones and dry soil. In Avivim, Israel has invested in deep wells and in irrigation systems. In Aytaroun, the price of fuel is prohibitive and electricity strictly rationed. In Avivim special rates are offered to the settlers, making irrigation a low-cost operation. In Aytaroun, the lack of storage facilities limits investment in farming. In Avivim, Israel has built packing plants of international standards. In Aytaroun, the absence of decent roads means the produce will be pulped before it gets to the market. In Avivim, the roads are of smooth asphalt, and airplanes carry produce directly to international markets.

In spite of all that, the moshavim were quick to desert their lands when Israel attacked Lebanon in July 2006. Many of the inhabitants of Aytaroun remained steadfast, fought the Israeli army, and defended their land till the last minute. Could this be why thy are facing the threat of losing their pitiful tobacco subsidy?

Islamists' new ally: global warming

"Jewish groups have briefed Congress on a new threat to stability in the Middle East: Global warming.

The idea that changes wrought by global warming — flooded coastlines, intense droughts and increased competition for water, strong storms — could destabilize volatile parts of the world is not new. Retired American generals, task forces within the Defense Department and even the CIA have warned of global warming’s geopolitical stakes.

A team of Israeli experts brought the message to Congress, with a warning that moderate Arab regimes — already under fire in many cases from Islamic extremist factions in their own countries — could be among the most stressed by climate changes. And that, in turn, could threaten America’s longtime ally in the region."

Do I really need to comment?

FY 2005 Program: Support Peace Processes ($1,500,000 DA; and $5,000,000 ESF to be
notified separately):

The U.S.-Israel Cooperative Development Research (CDR) Program is a USAID-managed, peer reviewed competitive grants program that funds collaborative research involving scientists from Israel and the United States working with counterparts in developing countries. Grants are selected based upon technical merit and relevance to the needs of the developing countries.
About 60 CDR projects are presently active. The Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC)
Program is a USAID-managed, competitive research grants program specifically focused on
promoting technical cooperation between Arab and Israeli scientists, students, and communities
on topics relevant to development in the Middle East. MERC’s external peer-review panels
provide expert technical advice to a USAID/Department of State selection committee. Presently, 35 MERC projects are active, involving scientists and institutions in Jordan, Egypt, West Bank/Gaza, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon. U.S. scientists may also participate in a MERC grant, but all MERC projects must demonstrate significant levels of direct Arab-Israeli
cooperation.