Israeli forces destroy a water resevoir near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, June 2011.
The Israeli government has turned a blind eye — and often actively supported — the illegal takeover of water springs located on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers, according to a new report released by the United Nations’ leading humanitarian body..
“All the development of these tourist sites is being done with the support of [the] state budget. The main mechanism is funds that are being allocated primarily, but not only, by the regional councils of the settlements,” explained Yehezkel Lein, head of the Research and Analysis Unit at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), during a media briefing on 13 March.
“The Binyamin Regional Council is the most active in this regard,” Lein said, referring to the a local authority that brings together more than forty Israeli settlements. “Now the regional councils are being funded by the central government [through] the ministry of interior, so we can see the line.”
