On February 10, 2022, 14 young activists from the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills (SHH) launched the #StopWaterApartheid Campaign. Through this ongoing campaign the young activists seek to cast some light on the Israeli occupation’s restrictions on their communities’ access to water in the Jordan Valley and the SHH. They contend that Israeli denial of their right to water is weaponized to take over their land and expand Israeli illegal settlements on their land.
Visit their website here.
The anti-water apartheid youth group is the ripen fruits of years of mobilization and political education led and held by Stop the Wall to support youth in Area ‘C’ and engage them in their own struggle against Israeli settlement expansion and apartheid practices.
The #StopWaterApartheid Campaign is two-fold: 1) An advocacy initiative to call on governments across the world to hold Israel accountable for its water apartheid practices as part of the larger settler colonial and apartheid policies subjugating the Palestinian people 2) Actions on the ground to materially support and initiate alternatives to the man-made scarcity of water in Area ‘C’.
This campaign, initiated and led by the youth group we formed in Area ‘C’ is part of a series of other efforts made by Stop the Wall over the course of years.
Follow the #StopWaterApartheid Campaign on:
The youth group also released the following videos to highlight how Israeli water apartheid manifests in the day-to-day struggle of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and the SHH:
- On Water Apartheid.
- On the Jordan Valley and water, two short videos: On Bardala and the farmer Mohammed.
- On Susiya, SHH.
For years, Stop the Wall has been drawing on the interconnectedness between water apartheid, land grab and the solidification of Israel’s three-tiered system of oppression: Settler colonialism, apartheid and military occupation. Stopping Israeli water apartheid is also part of the ongoing Right to Exist Campaign, which focuses on four rights, among of which the Right to Water.
We have also joined in the BDS to call to boycott Mekorot, Israel’s national Water Company which acts as the agent of Israeli water apartheid in Area ‘C’ of the West Bank.
In 2020, we released a detailed factsheet titled, ‘Cutting the Lifeline-Stop the Annexation of Palestinian Water.’ In the factsheet, we touched on the connection between Israel’s ongoing de facto and planned de jure annexation of the Jordan Valley and the practices of water apartheid against Palestinians.
Moreover, in recent years, we have challenged Israeli water apartheid by rehabilitating two water springs in Al- Janiya village in Ramallah district and in Khallet Al-Mai in the SHH. The two renovated water springs now serve farmers and people in these two areas. The cultivation of the land surrounding the water springs also allows Palestinians to protect it from Israeli confiscation.