In the latest success for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, authorities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, have suspended a proposed $170m water treatment plant deal with Israeli state water firm, Mekorot. The decision comes after a recent campaign by local trade unions and human rights groups which connected Mekorot’s role in the Israeli theft of Palestinian water resources, with evidence that the project did not meet Argentine standards and necessities, reports the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
Campaigners argue that Mekorot was attempting to export the discriminatory water policies it has developed against the Palestinian people, with regard to Argentina.
This victory largely contradicts Israeli claims, last expressed during Netanyahu’s speech at the AIPAC, that the global south, eager for Israeli technology, are uncontested growing markets.
Mekorot illegally appropriates Palestinian water, diverting it to illegal Israeli settlements and towns inside Israel, imposing severe obstacles to Palestinians accessing their own water.
Amnesty International has accused Israel of depriving Palestinians of access to water as a ‘means of expulsion’. A French parliamentary report accused Israel of imposing a system of “water apartheid” in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Friends of the Earth Palestine and a range of BDS partners are calling for a week of action against Mekorot during the last week of March.
For details on this and info regarding other BDS-related campaigns, continue reading at the AIC, via link below.
