Israel, the Israeli water company Mekorot, and Israeli settlers have expropriated springs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by Israel. The springs and wells, to which Palestinians have a human right in international law, are appropriated exclusively for use by Israelis and visiting tourists.
Nomenclature The topographical feature of a spring in semitic languages, and specifically in both Arabic: (عين) and Hebrew: (עַיִן), variously transliterated as ayn, en, ein, also means "eye" (socket), a spring in the arid terrain of the Middle East being naturally understood to be a kind of "eye of the landscape". Given their importance, many toponyms in Palestine incorporate the word in terms for towns and localities.
Background The groundwater resources on which Israel depends draw on 3 aquifers, only one of which is in Israel and of the recharge area of the water tables only 5% lies in Israel. The West Bank's resources are either surface run-off channelled in streams and rivers or groundwater and the population down to the 1980s had not been allowed to access more than 14-18% of the total water available. Israel's perceived and programmed water security depends on minimizing Palestinian use of the aquifers in their own territory of the West Bank. Historically, spring water had always been managed by villages adjacent to springs, which lay within their boundaries. The earlier British mandatory authority had difficulties formulating a water law given the diversity of regional practices, and all efforts by them to do so failed. In that period, however, the Zionist leadership often argued its case for increasing Jewish immigration by asserting that efficient modern techniques of water management would ensure a limitless capacity for absorbing these immigrants: water, they argued, was abundant, all that was lacking was expertise in developing modern infrastructure. The future Israeli water company Mekorot was set up in 1937 to this end. However, with the establishment of the state of Israel, the range estimates for available water resources in Palestine were scaled back significantly, and the imagined abundance was replaced by a recognition of water scarcity. Israel centralized and nationalized its water resources in 1959. Until 1950, when Jordan claimed the West Bank by annexation – a move not recognized by the international community – most Palestinian villages drew the majority of their water from springs and by collecting rainwater. In the wake of the 1948 Palestine war, the inhabitants of the historic core of Jerusalem and its eastern neighbourhoods had lost access to the Ras al-'Ayn and 'Arrub springs, and, until pumping station facilities were repaired, the severities of rationing were eased by drawing on the springs in Silwan and Sur Bahir. The springs had traditionally been managed by a communal property regime. Irrigated agriculture in villages mainly depended on these springs. Improved technology allowed wells to be dug in the ensuing decade. Villagers pooled funds in order to create "well companies" in order to secure finance for drilling. Jordan set up a Jerusalem Water Utility in the mid-1960s, but it serviced only the three cities of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah. This project stopped when Israel conquered and occupied the West Bank in 1967. Israel thereafter did not extend its water laws to the captured territories, which were run by a military administration. That authority quickly issued Military Order no. 92 investing a military officer with all powers regarding the management of water resources in what became the Palestinian territories. Military Order no. 158 later stipulated that wells could be drilled only after obtaining a military permit, and, over the ensuing 23 years, only twenty three such permits were issued. Springs waters, however, were rarely touched, and the existing regime allowing villages to continue with their property management regarding the use of such resources. The minimum mean for daily per capita water consumption set by WHO is 100 litres per day: the average in the West Bank is 66 litres. The state-owned Israeli company Mekorot taps springs and drills wells in the West Bank and furnishes settlements with water for all purposes, industrial, agricultural and domestic. It also sells some to Palestinian water utilities, according to schedules Israeli authorities determine to fix the allowable amount. For many villagers whose access to local sources is severely restricted, the result is that they must often purchase trucked-in water priced much higher than that supplied to settlements, and in the poorest communities the monthly outlay for imported water can rise to half of a family income.
Settlement usurpations of springs after 1967
At least 300 springs exist in the West Bank. In the process of establishing Israeli settlements, many of these springs were targeted by the settlers, and the struggle to wrest possession of the areas of the landscape that feature them was, and remains, a notable source of conflict between local Palestinians and the immigrant Jewish communities. In a survey conducted in 2011, the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory identified 56 springs that had either been taken over by settlers (30), or were the object of targeting for eventual inclusion into the settlement areas (26). 93% of these were in Area C, on parcels of land that, according to the records of the Israeli Civil Administration, in large part (84%) are registered as private Palestinian property. One technique relies on the practice by the IDF of declaring large areas of West Bank land military fire zones where (Palestinian) civilians may not enter. The six settler Regional Councils in the West Bank are supposed to operate under a military ordinance regulating their activities within defined municipal boundaries, but, according to Haaretz's Yotam Berger the civil/military administration turns a blind eye to the phenomenon or even encourages the settler groups to develop infrastructure on lands beyond their municipal jurisdiction that are otherwise closed military zones or private Palestinian property. Many of the sequestered springs are designated as Israeli parks, in a broader process of what has been called "colonial ecologism", or "apartheid springs."
Springs seized for settlements (by 2011) The following is a list of 30 springs that had fallen under the complete control of Israeli settlements by 2011.
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