The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood
Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks.
While I was living in Palestine, this was all too common. Israel controls Palestine’s water and would regularly destroy the rainwater catchment cisterns we would construct or repair on the rooftops of Palestinian homes and refugee camps.
Us internationals (i.e. those of us with expendable income) would resort to paying for private water delivery for the community, out-of-pocket.
This is a human rights abuse and Israel does it knowingly and systematically.