To: Acea, City of Rome
We are Israeli citizens who are active against our government’s policies of colonialism, occupation and apartheid towards the Palestinian people. In particular, many of us are veteran activists in the campaign against Israel’s illegal colonization and settlement construction policies in the occupied West Bank.
We have learned that Acea, the Rome water utility, signed a MOU with Mekorot at the Israel-Italy summit last December. We would like to ask you to terminate your cooperation with Mekorot, due to its complicity in violations of human rights and war crimes.
Mekorot’s contribution to Italy’s water infrastructure is a legacy of crimes. Anyone taking a tour of the occupied West Bank can see Mekorot’s projects of delivering stolen water to illegal Israeli settlements, which were built in violation of international law. The construction of settlements amounts to a war crime. The Palestinian human rights organization, Al Haq, has documented how Mekorot illegally pumps water from Palestinian aquifers, causing Palestinian water sources to dry up. Mekorot supplies the pillaged water to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In addition, Mekorot practices systematic discrimination in the supply of water to the Palestinian population, who are forced to buy their own water from the Israeli company at prices decided by Israel. Mekorot regularly reduces water supply to Palestinians, in favor of illegal settlements and their intensive agriculture and luxurious life style, creating a system of "water apartheid." Anyone driving through the occupied West Bank can see the shameful contrast between Israeli settlements with swimming pools and lawns and their Palestinian neighbours who do not even have running water.
It should be well known that the per capita consumption of Israeli settlers is 369 liters per day, while that of the Palestinians is 73 liters, well below the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organization of 100 liters.
Israeli water policies are a means for expulsion, which impede development and force the Palestinian people to leave their lands. The Israeli organization Who Profits describes Mekorot as "the executive arm of the Israeli government" with regards to water issues in the occupied Palestinian territories and states that "it is actively engaged in the management and maintenance" of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine.
We thank our fellow Italian activists, from the Palestine solidarity campaign and the public water movement in Italy, for their efforts to raise awareness of this important issue. We share their call, and we expect you to take a stand for human rights, stop rewarding perpetrators of crimes.
We therefore say: No to the theft of water in Palestine. No to ACEA - Mekorot cooperation!
Sincerely,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within