HAMAS CONDEMNS AGREEMENT LINKING RED SEA WITH DEAD SEA
Gaza, 8 Safar 1435/10 December 2013 (MINA) – Hamas movement has expressed its total rejection to the agreement linking Red Sea with Dead Sea, considering it a normalization and legalization to the Israeli occupation.
Hamas movement warned of the agreement’s serious impacts on the Palestinian cause in light of the Israeli open war on Palestinian people and holy sites, Palestinian Information Center reported as quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
In a controversial step, Israel, Jordan and PA signed in Washington an agreement linking between the Red Sea and Dead Sea.
Israeli occupation officials have described the agreement as a historic development that could achieve Herzl’s dream, while environmental groups warned of its serious impacts.
The movement stressed that the PA is not entitled to give up or compromise on any inch of the Palestinian land or water resources, calling on Palestinian factions to refuse such agreements that strengthen the Israeli occupation.
The Islamic movement called on the Palestinian Authority not to take unilateral decisions in violation of the national consensus under the illusion of peace negotiations.
‘Controversial meeting’ in Washington
Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians signed a water-sharing initiative at the World Bank in Washington Monday (9/12) that could ‘protect’ water resources in the region amid rising demand, Maan reported.
The pact, signed at the World Bank’s headquarters, will see Jordan providing 50 million cubic liters of desalinated water to Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat.
In exchange, the Israel will provide northern Jordan with the same amount of water from the Sea of Galilee.
It will also see Israel raising its annual sales of water to the Palestinian Authority by 20-30 million cubic meters a year, up from the current level of 52 million cubic meters.
The World Bank said the project is “limited in scale and designed to accomplish two objectives: to provide new water to a critically water short region; and the opportunity, under scientific supervision, to better understand the consequences of mixing Red Sea and Dead Sea waters.”
An environmental group, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), said the project as outlined has significant problems, including the handling of the brine from the desalination plant. The plan envisions experimenting with mixing the brine with water in the Dead Sea.
Gidon Bromberg, Israeli occupation director of the group, noted that World Bank studies had found that introducing Red Sea brine could have “detrimental impacts” on the Dead Sea’s fragile ecosystem.
“It will also increase the cost of desalinating water in Aqaba by 30 percent, and it will maintain the protest of the environmental groups,” he said.(T/P03/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
