One of the harshest attacks against Israel made in increasingly mainstream circles in recent months is that the Israeli presence in the West Bank has resulted in “Water Apartheid” — a systematic deprivation of the Palestinians’ water rights. Most famously, it was raised in February by Martin Schultz, president of the European parliament, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset in mid-February, triggering a walkout by a number of Members of Knesset. “One of the questions these young people asked me which I found most moving – although I could not check the exact figures,” Shultz asked, “was this: how can it be that an Israeli is allowed to use 70 litres of water per day, but a Palestinian only 17?”

A new report, however, suggests that claims of “water apartheid” look much more like a water libel. In an exclusive exposé in the April issue of The Tower Magazine, Akiva Bigman explores in depth the usage of water in the Palestinian Authority and the dramatic extent to which Palestinians have benefited from Israeli involvement. He concludes:

When one examines the relevant data, it becomes clear that, under Israeli rule, the Palestinian water supply has become larger, more technologically sophisticated, of higher quality, and much easier to access; almost entirely due to Israeli efforts.

According to Bigman, Palestinian per capita water consumption has increased dramatically in recent years, due almost exclusively to Israeli investment in Palestinian infrastructure, purification, and distribution. This, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the PA for water investment have mostly been diverted to corruption. For example, Bigman notes, of $130 million contributed for improving sewage treatment, only $7.2 million have been spent for that purpose.

Claims of Israeli efforts to sabotage basic necessities of life have long been central to the conspiracy theories that run rampant in the Palestinian Authority and around the Arab world.

The new April 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine can be accessed by clicking here.

[Photo: Issam Rimawi / Flash90 / The Tower]