The Hague-based court ruled in 2004 that the Israeli regime has violated the international law by erecting the 360-kilometer concrete structure globally known as the Apartheid Wall that runs the full length of the West Bank.
The ICJ said the regime must dismantle the barrier that shuts Palestinians’ access to their lands in the West Bank as well as the western aquifer system that provides 51 percent of West Bank water adding all governments must avoid any measures that suggest they recognize Tel Aviv’s “illegal” act or help it “maintain” the situation.
“All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction,” the ICJ said.
However, British Water, the trade association of British water industry companies and workers, has openly defied the international court’s ban by signing, what the Israeli embassy in London called a “landmark water agreement” with Israeli government’s Industrial R & D Center, MATIMOP.
The British government not only failed to condemn the move, but the UK Trade and Investment Department proudly embraced the deal as a triumph.
“The UK are world leaders in many aspects of the environment and so the UK and Israel complement each other and have much to offer each other in this sector,” the UK Trade and Investment said
“Teaming up with Israeli environment companies will give UK companies access to innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. UK companies can also benefit by providing their experience in marketing and management for Israeli companies,” it added.
This comes as the French Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee said back in January that the Israeli regime is using water resources in the West Bank as "a weapon" that is "serving the new apartheid" policies of Tel Aviv against Palestinians.
The Israeli regime has built the Separation Wall along the Western Aquifer water basin and east of the occupied territories border with the West Bank effectively annexing fertile lands and stealing strategic water resources from Palestinians.
The regime, which ruined some 30 kilometers of Palestinians’ water networks during the 2008-2009 Gaza massacre in, what the UN Fact Finding Mission described as, “deliberate and systematic” destruction, is also contaminating the Coastal Aquifer of Gaza, which is now the sole water supply left for Palestinians.
Against such a backdrop, British Water has brazenly talked of “commercial intent for the benefit of UK and Israeli companies” as the motive behind the water agreement with MATIMOP, in total disregard of the international law, the rights of the Palestinians and the moral and democratic principles Britain has been trumpeting to champion.
This comes as British Water is not alone in this as another British company, Veolia, is also running projects for Tel Aviv that dump Israeli waste on Palestinians lands in clear violation of the international law.