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Israel Denies Palestinians Equal Water Access

A report published by Palestinian rights group al-Haq shows how Israel has denied Palestinians their share of water resources since 1967, Jihan Abdallah writes.

A Palestinian farmer harvests grapes in a vineyard in the West bank village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron September 9, 2012. Once the mainstay of the local economy, Palestinian agriculture in the rocky West Bank is in decline, with farmers struggling to protect both their livelihoods and their lands. Deprived of water and cut off from key markets, farmers across the occupied territory can only look on with a mix of anger and envy as Israeli settlers copiously irrigate their own plantations and export at wi
A Palestinian farmer harvests grapes in a vineyard in the West bank village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, Sept. 9, 2012. — REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

AL-KHADER, West Bank — In the small, cement and brick homes on the parched hill of al-Khader, a West Bank village near Bethlehem, the Musa family does not have running water, let alone any to irrigate their arid grape and olive field.

Under a baking sun, children roam barefoot on bone-dry soil while women hang faded clothes on wires. Their father, Ahmad Musa, says their only source of water is the expensive tankered water that often requires a long wait.

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