In a short article on Page 11 in Monday's edition of Israel Hayom, it was reported that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails for security-related crimes have adopted a new habit: They leave the prison faucets running for hours in an express effort to waste Israel's water supply.
While this is clearly a form of aggression, the newest battlefront was completely absent from the media headlines and did not lead any of the news broadcasts.
Don't people understand that this is our water?
And when I say "our" I mean all of us: citizens of Israel, Jews, non-Jews, neighboring nations, residents of the Middle East, and all living things. The one thing we all have in common is that we all need water to survive. No living creature can survive for long without water; for humans, the absolute limit is about six days.
The security prisoners are supposed to be driven by ideology, aren't they? But what is there to say about the ideology of deliberately wasting water in a drought-stricken corner of the world? Don't they understand that if we don't have water, then Jordan won't have water either and neither will their Palestinian brethren? Could it be that they simply don't care?
Water is a resource that is in short supply. Since the 1970s, we have been warned by various international bodies, including the United Nations, that a looming water crisis threatens the entire globe. Currently, more than a billion people around the world do not have access to safe, fresh water.
When the water system in Cape Town, South Africa, was on the verge of collapse, someone suggested dragging an iceberg to the dried-out city and using the melted ice to replenish the supply. Ultimately, however, the crisis was averted when the residents took responsibility and reduced their water consumption by 50%.
The Middle East is undergoing a protracted drought. In Israel – a water powerhouse that expertly desalinates and reclaims while also rationing water – the average monthly water consumption per capita is about 10 cubic meters. Every time a celebrity spokesperson pleads with us to conserve water, it seems we manage to cut our consumption by another 10 or 20%.
In Jordan, one of the driest countries in the world, the average monthly water consumption per capita is about 6 cubic meters, and in the Palestinian Authority, it is closer to 3 cubic meters. There is no water to waste.
So how can it be that the average consumption for a security prisoner is a whopping 21 cubic meters per month?
The global water crisis requires cooperation and partnerships between countries, certainly on a regional level. Israel supplies Jordan with more water than stipulated in the 1994 peace accord, particularly during the severe shortage of 2009. This gesture has contributed immensely to the warm relations between Israel and Jordan. Beyond supplying Jordan with water, Israel regularly assists Jordan with water conserving technology, advising Jordan on climate-appropriate agriculture and helping Jordan focus on crops that require less water. Other Arab countries look at Israel's steady cooperation with Jordan and also seek Israel's help in conserving water.
In Israel's security prisons, which double as a hothouse for Israel hatred, this cooperation between Arab states and Israel is not viewed favorably. While their friends are busy trying to annihilate us with fire outside the prison walls, they are trying to dehydrate us from inside. We need to turn off their terror tap.
