Ramallah: Minister of Water, Eng. Mazen Ghunaim met with Minister of Justice Dr. Mohammed Al-Shalaldeh in the presence of the legal department and specialists from both sides.
During the meeting, two main topics were discussed, the first of which focuses on strengthening the cooperation between the two ministries in the field of Palestinian water law, developing law enforcement mechanisms, and finding solutions to the existing challenges to serve the water sector and achieve general deterrence. The second focus was on Israeli violations in the field of Palestinian water rights and arbitrary water occupation policies on the ground, to discuss ways and mechanisms to enforce international laws and conventions to confront and reduce these continuous violations of the occupation in the water and sanitation sectors that affect all aspects of life and development.
Within the first axis, a detailed review was presented, including a series of recommendations, discussed by the two parties to activate the law, and to deal with the issues of violations on water resources and cooperation mechanisms within the legal framework to reduce this dangerous phenomenon, in addition to introducing mechanisms for the allocating water judges, and closer cooperation between the Water Authority, the judiciary and the public prosecutor Office to cover the technical aspects of water issues.
Within the framework of the second axis on Israeli violations, a detailed presentation of Israeli violations, historically and even today in the water sector, was presented, and the facts and direct repercussions on the Palestinians were reviewed, real models of reality have also been presented of Palestinian villages and communities suffering or threatened with thirst or deprivation of their daily subsistence as a result of depriving them of the water needed for agriculture or industry and various other sectors.
The meeting also dealt with the issue of Israeli violations of the sanitation sector, including the obstruction of sewage projects and treatment plants. The water implications of the Israeli annexation were also reviewed as a complement to a series of Israeli violations aimed at confiscating water rights almost completely, and the denial of the rights of the Palestinians to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, and the imposition of a new demarcation of the border, all of which are violations of international law, humanitarian law, and all conventions and treaties.
At the beginning of his speech, Eng. Ghunaim thanked Dr. Al-Shalaldeh and his staff for their presence, expressing the Water Authority's concern to cooperate and integrate with the relevant government institutions, noting that this integration and cooperation serves the development of services provided to the Palestinian citizen and protecting his rights from Israeli violations, and the infringements on water lines and networks, thereby improving the living conditions of the citizen and supporting his steadfastness on his land, and also expressing the full readiness to cooperate with the Ministry of Justice in this context.
For his part, Dr. Al-Shalaldeh confirmed that the Ministry of Justice is keen to provide full support to the national institutions in the field of activating the local laws and that the Ministry of Justice heads the special committee to follow up the application of the international agreements and treaties emanating from the Arab League, stressing that the water sector is one of the most important sectors of international concern. It is the most influential sector in the citizen's life, and this meeting comes in the field of framing the cooperation between the two ministries in the local and international sectors, confirming the interest in starting direct work on the ground with the Water Authority in this field. He thanked the head of the Water Authority and the competent staff for sharing this valuable information in this vital sector.
The meeting concluded with a number of recommendations, represented in forming a committee from the two parties to work on the raised issues, and emphasizing the priority of starting to attach water issues to specialized structures, similar to the environmental issues that were attached to the economic crimes, and working on training and qualification of judges specialized in water issues and organizing awareness training programs specialized in water issues, as well as cooperation on finding effective tools to pressure Israel to stop its violations and arbitrary policies, in addition to a number of resolutions and measures that will be taken and activated to serve the nation and the citizen.
