My letter to the NYTimes RE Gaza Need Not Be a Sewer

In designating 2013 as the UN International Year of Water Cooperation, the UNGA United Nations General Assembly recognizes that cooperation is essential to strike a balance between the different needs and priorities and share this precious resource equitably, using water as an instrument of peace. Promoting water cooperation implies an interdisciplinary approach bringing in cultural, educational and scientific factors, as well as religious, ethical, social, political, legal, institutional and economic dimensions.

RE: Gaza Need Not Be a Sewer by ALON TAL and YOUSEF ABU-MAYLA (Alon Tal of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a visiting professor at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. Yousef Abu-Mayla is a water expert at Al Azhar University in Gaza.) 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/opinion/gaza-need-not-be-a-sewer.html?ref=international


Dear Editor,

Gaza need not be a sewer... Gaza also should not be a prison camp for Palestinians forcibly displaced by Israel.

The water conflict is indeed "part of other, more intractable issues," and as such decoupling is at best only a temporary measure- one that is very vulnerable to Israel's tendency to collectively punish Palestinians who refuse to idolize and endorse Israel as "The Jewish State".

Admirable efforts to solve Gaza's water crisis are worth supporting, but moving forward should factor in the vital importance of ending the Israel-Palestine conflict with a just and lasting peace based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
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