Blowing Israel’s aqua-shenanigans out of the water.
High up on Israel’s list of fabricated and otherwise shamelessly embellished achievements is that of having allegedly “made the desert bloom” promptly after setting up shop on usurped Palestinian land in 1948.
Never mind that Palestine wasn’t exactly a desert – or that “blooming” techniques involved mass slaughter as well as plenty of ecological devastation.
Of course, some might argue that Israel has enjoyed an unfair competitive advantage in the water realm given that it has been able to dominate access to the valuable resource by diverting regional waterways in its favour and literally hijacking Palestinian aquifers.
Now, Israel is once again making disingenuous waves through the Israeli firm Water-Gen – which, a recent obsequious dispatch in the Times of Israel informs us, is “look[ing] to quench global thirst” by extracting water from air.
The Post reports on the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, where fresh water is “a scarce commodity” and where recurring electricity crises are not helped by the fact that “damage from the Israeli bombing of the [Gaza power] plant in 2014 has yet to be fully repaired".
The Post continues: “When looking at the larger picture of the crisis, Piper was clear that the primary cause is the restrictions on the freedom of movement of goods and people through the three crossings into the Strip, which have made a viable economy impossible.” When it rains .
As part of his AIPAC performance, Dershowitz effectively promoted Water-Gen to the frontlines of the battle against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights: “I believe that there is no weapon more powerful in the fight against BDS than for Israel to develop technologies that the world cannot live without… You cannot boycott products that you can’t live without.” In sum, it seems it’s not so much about nobly rescuing a hapless, thirsty planet.
It’s about securing Israel’s image and with it its highly profitable spot in the international order – using water from thin air to whitewash a system of institutionalised apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
And that, surely, is something we can all live without.