First they took the houses. Then they took the lands. Then they took the sh-t.

I heard this story when I was in East Jerusalem earlier this month and couldn’t believe it. It was explained to me that Israel has several sewage processing plants that turn sewage into water for agricultural use. The plants take Palestinian sewage and are supposed to return the water to the Palestinians in the West Bank. But they don’t return all of what they get.

Now I’m back, here’s the documentation. First from a report by Ewash, a consortium of groups that work on water and sanitation issues in the West Bank, then a friend’s summary.

Here is documentation of this theft from Ewash:

In 2002, the Israeli Ministry of Finance began to deduct wastewater treatment plant construction, operation and maintenance costs from Palestinian tax revenues collected and held by Israel. These monies go to pay for treatment of West Bank wastewater, which is then often re-used for Israeli agriculture. Palestinians have no access to the treated wastewater. Israel has claimed costs as far back as 1996 without agreement from the Palestinian authorities. It has built five wastewater treatment plants for Israeli use in the OPT using Palestinian funds. These are HaGilboa (Jenin), Yad Hanna-Emek Hefer (Tulkarem), Drom HaSharon (Qalqilya), HaGihon (Bir Nibala, Al-Jib, Al-Ram, Al-Ezzeriyah) and Shoket (Hebron).

My friend: