Sir, – The article by Mark Weiss in The Irish Times in praise of Israel's water desalination expertise fails to discuss Israel's use of water as a weapon in the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and in its blockade of Gaza ("How Israel used desalination to address its water shortage", July 18th). Israel has full administrative control over 60 per cent of the area of the West Bank but forbids Palestinians who live there from linking up to the water infrastructure. Israel extracts and redirects water to illegal Israeli settlements and often forces Palestinians to purchase water taken from their own land. Just a few kilometres from the desalination plants in Ashkelon and Ashdod the two million people of Gaza face a water crisis which, according to the UN, will make the area uninhabitable within a few years.– Yours, etc,
ÉAMONN MEEHAN,
Sadaka – The Ireland
Palestine Alliance,
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Blackrock, Co Dublin.