Comments (0)Report: Most West Bank Wastewater Untreated
July 2, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
The wastewater of 2 million of the 2.8 million people living in Jerusalem and the West Bank is not treated, according to a new report.
The human rights group B’Tselem on Sunday released its report “Foul Play: Neglect of Wastewater Treatment in the West Bank.”
While the organization laid much of the blame on Israel, it said the Palestinians also were at fault.
The report said the failure to treat the Israeli and Palestinian wastewater could result in the permanent contamination of the mountain aquifer, a main source of water for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Only 81 of the 121 West Bank Jewish settlements are connected to wastewater treatment facilities, many of which are outdated and not able to handle the full load of sewage, according to the report.
The Palestinians suffer the most from the untreated sewage, which flows down from the settlements, mostly built on top of hills, to the Palestinian villages located in the valleys below, the report said. The villages also depend on springs and wells for their water, which become contaminated by the wastewater.
Some 95 percent of Palestinian wastewater is not treated, and the Palestinians have resisted attempts by Israel to join together to treat the wastewater, saying it would legitimize the settlement enterprise, according to the report.
B’Tselem called on Israel to treat all wastewater from the settlements in the same advanced way as within the Green Line, and demanded that Israel and the Palestinian Authority cooperate in cleaning up wastewater, even if it means using the same treatment plants.
Diaspora Museum Changing Name
The Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv will get a new infusion of cash and become the Museum of the Jewish People.
A $25 million project to renew the museum, now called Beth Hatefusoth, was announced last week at a meeting of the museum’s international board of governors. The renewed museum will open in 2012, according to board chairman Leonid Nevzlin.
Officials said the museum will update its approach to the history of the Jewish people. The project, the culmination of a comprehensive renewal process undertaken by the Diaspora Museum in recent years, is being financed by the Israeli government, the Claims Conference, the Nadav Fund and other international donors. Teams of architects, consultants, historians and academic advisers from Israel and abroad have begun the planning and design of the museum, according to a museum news release.
“Its purpose is to convey the unique and ongoing story of the Jewish People while giving expression to a new perception about the relationship between the Jewish People and the State of Israel—the perception of one Jewish people, incorporating Jews living in Israel or any other place in the world,” Nevzlin said. “For this reason we decided to change the name from ‘the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora’ to the ‘Museum of the Jewish People.’ ”
Israeli Millionaires Drop by 28 Percent
The number of Israeli millionaires has fallen by 28 percent, nearly twice the global total.
According to the Merrill Lynch World Wealth report released June 25, Israel now has 5,900 “high net worth individuals,” defined as those with at least $1 million in liquid financial assets, down 2,300 from the 2008 report.
The number of global millionaires fell by 14.9 percent, according to the report.
In the United States, the number dropped by 18.5 percent. Hong Kong lost the most millionaires, 61 percent, from the previous year.
According to the report, the number of Israeli “ultra-high net worth individuals,” with liquid assets of at least $30 million, fell by 24.6 percent, from 97 to 73.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.