Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned today that Israel seeks to control all Palestinian archeological sites in the West Bank under various pretexts, calling on UNESCO to shoulder its responsibility toward these sites and protect them. Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said that Israeli aggression and settlers’ terrorism has been on the rise against Palestinian archeological sites such as historical Sebastia, in the north of the West Bank, and Husan village with its water springs and pools in the south. He warned that the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers want to turn these sites, some included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, into tourism and religious sites for the settlers by taking full control over them and preventing any Palestinian presence in these areas. Turning into another subject, the Prime Minister described as racist a decision by the Israeli Mekorot water company to reduce the water share for the Hebron and Bethlehem governorates. ‘This is a dangerous racist and discriminatory measure that deprives our people in these two governorates of their most basic rights to water while doubling the quantities of water for the benefit of the settlers,’ he said. ‘While the average Palestinian per capita water consumption does not exceed 72 liters per day, the Israeli consumes 320 liters per day.’ Israel controls all Palestinian water resources in the occupied West Bank and sells back the water to the Palestinian for high prices. The Prime Minister also welcomed the adoption by the Human Rights Council of a resolution calling for updating the database of companies operating or engaged in direct or indirect activities in the illegal Israeli settlements, thanking the countries that sponsored and supported this resolution given its importance in the annual updating of the database of companies that contribute to the Israeli colonization system. He called on the countries that did not support this resolution to reconsider their positions and stop encouraging the occupation authorities to continue their crimes, noting that the positions of these countries is not anti-human rights only, but also against international law.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA