Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah addressing a gathering marking World Water Day in Ramallah. (WAFA photo/Maan Khalifeh)

RAMALLAH, March 29, 2017 (WAFA) – Israel exploits Palestinian water and then re-sell it back to the Palestinians at high cost, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a gathering in Ramallah marking the World Water Day, Hamdallah accused Israel of violating Palestinian water rights and basic human rights when it denies the Palestinian people the right to benefit from their own water resources.

“Israel violates the most basic humanitarian laws when it denies the Palestinian people the right to benefit from their own (water) resources while it allocates to the (Israeli) settlers (in the West Bank) many times more in quantity of water,” he said.

“Over and above all of this, (Israel) exploits Palestinian water and then re-sell it back to its owners at very high cost,” he said, “which is an obvious violation of international law.”

The prime minister said that the water shortage caused in the occupied territories has prompted the Palestinian Authority to push for reviving the joint Palestinian-Israeli water committee, which he said would make it possible to discuss and implement several badly needed water and infrastructure projects in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Israeli army-controlled Area C of the West  Bank.

He said the Palestinian were able to get several projects approved “without succumbing to Israel and its efforts to blackmail us into recognizing the settlements, which is something we will never agree to regardless of the price.”

M.K.