\n<\/p>\n
Water expert Jad Isaac tells Al Jazeera that Palestinians are trapped buying 100 million cubic metres (26 billion gallons) of water annually from Israel while their own springs are seized to force displacement.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the eastern occupied West Bank, the al-Auja spring has flowed for centuries, serving as one of the largest and oldest water basins in Palestine.<\/p>\n But Palestinian families who have relied on it for generations say Israeli settlers are effectively stealing the water, creating a crisis that experts are calling \u201cwater apartheid<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n An Israeli settlement outpost now stands between the villagers of al-Auja<\/a> and their water source. Residents report that settlers have fenced off the area and installed pumps that siphon water directly from the aquifer, leaving Palestinian pipes dry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe settlers banned us,\u201d Salama Kaabneh, the mukhtar (chief) of the Kaabneh clan, told Al Jazeera Arabic\u2019s Givara Budeiri. \u201cThere is a motor pulling water from the same basin \u2026 800 metres [2,625 feet] deeper than the spring\u2019s opening.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with Al Jazeera, Jad Isaac, director of the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ), revealed the staggering scale of inequality created by Israeli military control over water resources.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Israeli settler consumes approximately seven times the amount of water a Palestinian citizen gets,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Palestinian individual\u2019s share does not exceed 80 litres [21 gallons] per day,\u201d he explained, noting that in some marginalised communities, that drops to below 15 litres [4 gallons] \u2013\u00a0 \u201cfar below the global minimum recommendation of 100 litres per day\u201d.<\/p>\n This inequality is visible from the sky. Drone footage obtained by the Reuters news agency reveals withered, brown Palestinian greenhouses sitting adjacent to lush, green settlement agriculture that thrives on the seized water.<\/p>\nA systemic imbalance<\/h2>\n
The \u2018Oslo trap\u2019<\/h2>\n