WATCH: U.S.
Announces Landmark Water Deal Between Israel, Palestinian Authority.
Jason Greenblatt, the White House’s special envoy for international negotiations, announced on Thursday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached a landmark, U.S.-mediated water agreement.
Though Greenblatt presented the agreement in the context of a planned canal extending from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, he focused on the part of the deal that calls for Israel to sell the PA 33 million cubic meters of water, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Explaining the significance of the water deal, as well the electricity deal concluded earlier this week by the Palestinians and Israel, Greenblatt said: This agreement is an example of the parties working together to make a mutually beneficial deal.
In fact this is the second important agreement reached between the Israelis and Palestinians this week, the first being the agreement to energize the Jenin electrical substation, which was signed on Monday.
Hanegbi stated that while the canal won’t be finished for five years, Israel will be selling the water to the PA before the project is complete.
Gidon Bromberg, the Israel Director of EcoPeace, an organization that connects Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmentalists, told The Israel Project (which publishes The Tower) that the deal is “absolutely critical” because there is “real water scarcity.” He also noted that water sharing plans between Israel and Jordan have already begun as a pipeline for carrying water from the Sea of Galilee to Jordan is being built.
A full recording of Bromberg’s remarks is embedded below.
[Photo: U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv / YouTube ]