Every Drop Counts: Cisterns for Palestinian Livelihoods

In early September, the only remaining road to Hassan’s southern West Bank Palestinian village was blocked by the Israeli military with a massive new metal gate. (see image above) All three roads in and out of the community where Hassan and Ahmed live can now be blocked at will by the military whenever they choose.

Hassan's story:

Hassan, like other Palestinian laborers, has been unable to get a permit to work in Israel for nearly two years - leaving his family of four children locked in a spiral of poverty, ill health, and mental health stress. He has never been charged with any crime. But his house has been twice broken into at night by soldiers - terrifying his young children. And as he and the family are also living in a one room rented apartment, they live under the constant threat of eviction, if they cannot pay the rent. Even when the barriers are open, it can take hours for him to get to any major West Bank city, crossing numerous military roadblocks, further limiting his work opportunities as well as access to health care.

While the devastation enveloping Gaza has been in the global eye, increased Israeli encroachment on West Bank farmland, stiff barriers to Palestinians working in Israel, as well as barriers to even moving around the West Bank have left tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the grips of a silent, but growing crisis of poverty - ill health and hunger.

Few, if any, international aid organizations have resources to support West Bank Palestinians - given the enormous demands on resources for Gaza.

At the same time, support for the West Bank families is urgently needed in order to stem the immediate cycle of displacement and distress - which also feeds into the distress and conflict, foreclosing hope of peaceful settlement.

We are now raising money to help Hassan's family through the construction of a rainwater cistern. A cistern is an age-old technique to capture and channel winter rainwater for cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables throughout the late spring. This is the second cistern we are supporting through this campaign, after successfully raising funds for Ahmed who is now raising fruits and vegetables on his land.

Hassan has one thing in his favor. His father-in-law owns a small area of land (about 1 acre), where he can cultivate food. And this land is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian control - even if it is under Israeli military control. This means that he can develop it if he likes, with an approval from the Palestinian Authority. He does not need to seek Israeli permission for what he does on the land.

With access to water, Hassan can continue the work he has begun renovating ancient terraces on his land and turning a small plot on a rocky hillside into a rich source of livelihood. With income and water, Hassan can also eventually begin to construct a small home for his family near the cistern - ridding himself of the constant cost and insecurity of rental accommodations. For now, he has developed a plan and a budget for the cistern project.

No organization can help everyone. We are an informal group of concerned Canadians, US Citizens and Europeans living in Jerusalem and abroad, and are trying to do our part, one family at a time - as volunteers. This means that every cent of your donation goes directly to the families involved. In the arid West Bank, water is life. Join our appeal and help this Palestinian family gain self-sufficiency - stone by stone, meter by meter of irrigated land.

The new amount sought for this cistern is 28,000 Canadian dollars. (Please make note that donations to this campaign are in Canadian dollars, worth about 75% of US dollars.)