Published: 3 May 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
TECHNOLOGY HAS TRANSFORMED water from one of the most divisive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a vehicle that can now be used to promote regional unity, according to the non-governmental group EcoPeace Middle East.
The Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian group has embarked on an international campaign to disassociate water from the conflict – even though it is listed under the 1993 Oslo Accord as a core negotiating issue.
“Water cannot remain hostage to the failure to agree on other issues,” Israeli co-director of the organization, Gideon Bromberg, told the United Nations Security Council on Monday. “Let us set water free to give life and hope to our region.”
“Climate security and water security can not wait. The failure to move forward on these issues is not only to the detriment of Israelis and Palestinians, but to the rest of the world as well,” Bromberg told reporters in New York.
“We are all in the same boat, Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians.” Bromberg said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMmuiyZkVJw[/embed]
In an unusual move, he appeared at the UNSC together with his Palestinian co-director Nada Majdalani and Jordanian co-director Yana Abu Taleb.
Both he and Majdalani told the council that Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians were already working on joint water and energy projects and asked the member states to support their efforts.
Security Council president, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, told reporters that he had wanted to highlight a joint initiative that was both positive and effective.
FULL STORY Remove water from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, urges Ecopeace (Jerusalem Post)
Photo: EcoPeace co-directors Gidon Bromberg (right) and Nada Majdalani (second from right) with German Ambassador Heusgen at UNSC (Screen capture/UN web tv)
