Israel Blamed For Low Rainfall?
July 19, 2011 10:19 by Simon Plosker
It’s not difficult to see where Michael Jansen’s sympathies lie writing in the Irish Times:
Israel’s grip on the Jordan valley makes life arduous for Palestinians farming the soil…
On the second floor of an old building, the words “Egyptian Arab Land Bank est 1880” bear witness to the town’s heyday as the centre of a thriving agricultural area at the very time European Jewish colonies were being established in Ottoman- and British-ruled Palestine.
Despite a continuous, uninterrupted Jewish presence in the region dating back thousands of years, Jansen evidently still sees Jewish settlement as a form of “colonization”.
As for the subject material of the article itself “Once fertile valley dries up as Jerichoans face drought and demolition”, it is clear who is responsible for the lack of water:
Along the broad Israeli highway, we speed past Israel’s fat caterpillar greenhouses and vast green palm plantations that are drinking up the valley’s water.
Unfortunately, while printing the claims of Palestinians regarding the situation of the Jordan Valley, Jansen didn’t even bother to contact the Israeli Civil Administration of the region or interview any Israelis living there for any counter-balance.
Jansen couldn’t even be bothered to expand on why Israel deems it necessary to maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley – a current key demand of the Netanyahu government seeking defensible borders.
What a lazy and one-sided piece of journalism.
Israel Blamed For Low Rainfall? «ScrollPost.com
12:21 pm
Jul 19, 2011
[...] 1880” bear witness to the town’s heyday as the centre of [...]Original article can be viewed at Israel Blamed For Low Rainfall? on HonestReporting.Source: Europe & OECD BlogsPublished: 19 July 2011Site: [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Israel schuld an ausbleibenden Regenfällen? « Medien BackSpin
9:42 pm
Jul 20, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 20. Juli 2011 [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Stephen
9:32 pm
Jul 21, 2011
Whilst I have only anecdotal evidence I am prompted to comment on your piece. When I was in Israel a couple of years ago friends of mine, an Anglo/Palestinian and Norwegian couple living in Ramalah told met that the water supply was turned on only two days a week. A few days later another friend of mine who lives in a settlement in the Territories bemoaned the fact that his beautiful lawn was being ruined because a sprinkler ban was being imposed. Clearly Israel cannot be blamed for lack of rainfall, but there does seem some discrepancy in the way the water resources are apportioned.
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0