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[Ujwala Samarth]

I am sharing this blog by Mazin Qumsiyeh <mazin at qumsiyeh.org> which describes the way interested parties on all sides of the Israel-Palestinian divide, government and industry,  are pushing through the Red-Dead Sea project which will further destabilise an ecologically damaged and fragile region.
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>Ujwala Samarth
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>Snow and subservience
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2013/12/snow-and-subserviance.html
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>It is snowing here in Palestine.  My visitors from Gaza (a child being
>treated and his father) wish to go back to their family even though
>their wife tells us that they have no water and no electricity and
>that parts of the refugee camp that they live in is flooded (in
>Rafah).  But we are all concerned for the even more precarious
>position of refugees from Syria (both Palestinian and Syrians who
>escaped the fighting and now live in tents in a snow blizzard).
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>Those horrific conditions in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan make it
>even harder to understand the subservience to Israel of Mahmoud Abbas
>and company. In meeting with journalists in South Africa, Abbas went
>against the growing BDS movement that is supported by hundreds of
>Palestinian civil society organizations.  Abbas said to journalists in
>answer to a question: “No we do not support the boycott of Israel. But
>we ask everyone to boycott the products of the settlements. Because
>the settlements are in our territories..… But we don’t ask anyone to
>boycott Israel itself. We have relations with Israel, we have mutual
>recognition of Israel.” What mutual recognition is he talking about
>since Israel does not recognize any rights nor does it recognize there
>is a Palestine. His comments drew condemnation from South African and
>Palestinian activists. Abbas also did not mention the refugees, the
>ethnic cleansing, the Israeli apartheid, or even the close cooperation
>between Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel including in
>nuclear weapon development.[that was part of the reason Netanyahu and
>Peres both skipped the ceremonies as there was a call in South Africa
>to protest their attendance]
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>The denial of Palestinian rights to please Israel seems to know no
>boundaries.  The World Bank just sent a press release (available in
>Hebrew and English but not Arabic at the world bank website).  The
>release hails the signing a Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) for
>implementation of Phase 1 plans of the horrific Red Sea-Dead Sea
>project.  The Phase 1 MoU was signed by Israeli apartheid minister and
>war criminal Silvan Shalom, by Minister Hazim El-Naser for Jordan and
>Minister Shaddad Attili for the Palestinian Authority. The MoU
>includes: a) the development of a Jordanian desalination plant in
>Aqaba where the water produced will be shared with Israel free, b)
>releases of water by Israel from Lake Tiberias for use in Jordan
>(Jordan will pay for it even though it is part of the 1994 agreement),
>c)  the sale of about 20-30 million m3/year of desalinated water from
>Mekorot (the Israeli water utility) to the Palestinian Water Authority
>for use in the West Bank (this is also Palestinian water), d) a
>pipeline from the desalination plant at Aqaba would convey brine to
>the Dead Sea to study the effects of mixing the brine with Dead Sea
>water.
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>My field of research focuses on environmental issues. All
>environmental groups (even Israeli ones) opposed these plans from the
>time that Israel as a colonial power tried to peddle them in the
>1990s.  As all colonial powers, they destroy things and then destroy
>in other areas.  The Red-Dead Canal is it is now known intends to
>“save the shrinking Dead Sea”.   But there are two main sources of
>decline in Dead Sea Water levels: A) Diversion of upstream waters
>which resulted in decrease in water flow in the Jordan River from 1300
>million cubic meters (mcm) annually in the early 1950s to about 200
>mcm and B) Dead Sea water used per year by the chemical industries is
>estimated at > 262 MCM. Both of these environmental problems are from
>Israel.  Instead of reversing them, Israel (now with help of Jordanian
>and Palestinian authorities) intends to create a new problem. It is
>highly disturbing to see this trend of destruction, collusion, lack of
>direction, and continued people suffering.
 -- Mazin Qumsiyeh <mazin at qumsiyeh.org>