While the government is working at a brisk pace to raze illegal Jewish homes, the Ministerial Committee on Non-Jewish Matters headed by National Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has decided to connect tens of thousands of illegal Arab homes in the eastern Jerusalem area to the national water system. This will bring water to an estimated 150,000 Arab residents of the eastern Yerushalayim area.
 
During meetings of the ministerial committee, representatives ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) advocating on behalf of the illegal homeowners explained the chronic lack of water results in poor sanitary conditions and the complications resulting from such conditions.
 
According to officials in Mekorot Water Authority, of the eastern Jerusalem population numbering 250,000 people, only about 85,000 (16,000 homes) are connected to the national infrastructure. Those not connected all built their homes illegally, resulting in their being left out of the infrastructure plans. In reality, many have hooked themselves up illegally, or via neighbors, and in essence, they are benefiting today without paying for the service.
 
Interior Ministry officials stated “if they are hooked up illegally, we may as well as make it legal and then collect the money.”
 
Haaretz reports that the law permits hooking a home to the national infrastructure only if it is legal, pointing out that since 1967, the Interior Ministry and Jerusalem City Hall have not granted permits in eastern Jerusalem. It appears that in order to accommodate the illegal Arab homes, a new category will be created to facilitate hooking them up to the national infrastructure.
 
Ben-Eliezer stated man cannot live without water, electricity and bread, adding the current reality in eastern Jerusalem led to illegal water connectivity which compromises the integrity of the water supply and the loss of water which is a precious commodity.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)