naturalfeature:dead sea

5-year drought raises questions over Israel’s water strategy
▻https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-drought-raises-questions-over-062408778.html

It’s a confounding situation for a country that places itself on the forefront of desalination technology in an arid region, where water is a key geostrategic issue that has its own clauses in peace agreements.

“Nobody expected five years of drought in a row, so despite our desalination capacity, it’s still a very, very grave situation,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of energy.

Some say Israel’s technological prowess may not be enough to overcome the forces of nature.

Situated in the heart of the Middle East, #Israel is in one of the driest regions on earth, traditionally relying on a short rainy season each winter to replenish its limited supplies.

Years of decreased rainfall have reduced the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main natural water source, to some of its lowest recorded levels, and Israel has stopped pumping water from it to its national system.

The current drought has also dried out some tributaries that feed into the Jordan River, which flows south into the Sea of Galilee then squiggles 220 miles (360 kilometers) to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea.

#eau #moyen_orient

Dutch TV comedian blasts Israel with spoof of Eurovision winner ‘Toy’ -

Sanne Wallis de Vries’ pastiche of Netta Barzilai’s winning song criticizes Israeli army for killing of Gazans and has the chorus ‘Look how beautifully I launch missiles’

Itay Stern May 21, 2018

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-dutch-tv-comedian-blasts-israel-with-spoof-of-eurovision-winner-to

A satirical Dutch TV show has lampooned Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest-winning song “Toy,” with new lyrics that harshly attack Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.
Popular Dutch comedian Sanne Wallis de Vries, starring in the eponymous “Samme Wallis de Vries Show,” appeared looking like Israeli Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai in the spoof, sporting both a kimono and similar distinctive hairstyle.
skip - Sanne Wallis de Vries’ version of Toy
Sanne Wallis de Vries’ version of Toy - דלג

The first verse of her song, freely translated from the original Dutch, says: “Look at me, I’m a very sweet country / The world’s leaders are eating out of my hand / With one kiss I put out every fire. We’re throwing a party, are you coming? Later, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which will be empty soon anyway.”
>> Eurovision organizers tell fans to hold off on booking flights to Israel - sparking instant controversy
Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter
Email* Sign up

Just before the chorus, De Vries replaces the original transition that mentioned Wonder Woman with the words: “From Haifa to the Dead Sea, there are fireworks and kosher satay / Come dance with me to the music.”
Instead of the chorus where Barzilai sings “I’m not your toy,” the Dutch comedian sings, “Look how beautifully I launch missiles.”
The video accompanying De Vries shows footage of the Palestinian protests on the Gaza border last week, including scenes of smoke and Gazans being taken to hospital on stretchers.
When De Vries sings about Israel’s 70th anniversary, she notes, “The Palestinians aren’t invited to her party.” As she sings, in the background viewers are shown the opening ceremony for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, with special emphasis on President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.

The spoof version triggered much discussion online, with some Dutch viewers tweeting that the song was “anti-Israel” and also “Jew-hating.”

Dutch TV comedian blasts Israel with spoof of Eurovision winner ‘Toy’ - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-dutch-tv-comedian-blasts-israel-with-spoof-of-eurovision-winner-to
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6LJfB6Ftiw

A satirical Dutch TV show has lampooned Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest-winning song “Toy,” with new lyrics that harshly attack Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.

Popular Dutch comedian Sanne Wallis de Vries, starring in the eponymous “Samme Wallis de Vries Show,” appeared looking like Israeli Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai in the spoof, sporting both a kimono and similar distinctive hairstyle.

The first verse of her song, freely translated from the original Dutch, says: “Look at me, I’m a very sweet country / The world’s leaders are eating out of my hand / With one kiss I put out every fire. We’re throwing a party, are you coming? Later, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which will be empty soon anyway.”

Just before the chorus, De Vries replaces the original transition that mentioned Wonder Woman with the words: “From Haifa to the Dead Sea, there are fireworks and kosher satay / Come dance with me to the music.”

Instead of the chorus where Barzilai sings “I’m not your toy,” the Dutch comedian sings, “Look how beautifully I launch missiles.”

Water in Palestine: Segregated Sea Access and Running Water in the Israeli Apartheid - THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE
▻https://thefunambulist.net/cartography/water-palestine-segregated-sea-access-running-water-israeli-aparthei

https://thefunambulist.net/app/uploads/2018/05/Water-in-Palestine-Map-for-The-Funambulist-2017.jpg

To observe that water is a luxury inaccessible to many has become a cliché of the humanitarian discourse. What this narrative tends to leave asides are the political systems determining the unequal conditions in access to water, whether it is capitalism and its privatizations, or colonialism and its ethnic segregation of this access. Similarly, the so-called “international community” can, at times, recognize the illegally of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (cf. Resolution 2234 voted by the UN Security Council in December 2016) but does not seem to consider the totality of the territorial, social, administrative, judiciary, policing, and resource-management apparatuses that constitute the Israeli apartheid in Palestine – the term “Palestine” designates here the historical region that now includes Israel, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
Print
Map by Léopold Lambert for Aman Iwan (2017). (click here for a larger version)

Before even evoking water as a resource necessary to human survival, we can address the access to the three seas of Palestine (the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee) as fundamentally restrained through the various apparatuses that restrict Palestinian movements:
– All Israeli citizens – this includes the 1.8 million of Palestinians – have a total access to the coasts of these three seas, to the exception of the coast along the Gaza Strip since the 2005 Israeli disengagement. They even have full access to the East coast of the Sea of Galilee since the invasion and subsequent occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967.

The Dead Sea Lives! - Issue 25: Water
▻http://nautil.us/issue/25/water/the-dead-sea-lives-rp

http://static.nautil.us/2645_a7789ef88d599b8df86bbee632b2994d.png

Half a lifetime ago, in 1979, I traveled with my college roommate to one of the wonders of the world, a giant salt lake linking Israel and Jordan called the Dead Sea. We arrived at the nearby Ein Gedi Spa at the foot of the Judean Hills, donned swimsuits, and took a short stroll into an expanse of iridescent blue 10 times saltier than the Atlantic back home. I splayed my arms and legs and bobbed in the sun like a buoy, unsinkable in a legendary pool revered for its healing properties 1,338 feet below sea level, the lowest spot on Earth. When I returned last November, I was thrilled to find the spa and its restaurant still intact. But instead of sauntering to the shore, I had to take a trolley—a rough and tumble ride across a mile of sand and rocks to a body of water visibly smaller (...)

Noble Energy signs $500m deal to supply gas from Israel to Jordan - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5db74ce8-9978-11e3-91cd-00144feab7de.html#axzz2uAZE34r9

Noble Energy, the biggest foreign investor in Israel’s offshore Mediterranean natural gasfields, on Wednesday announced a contract that will see gas exported to customers in neighbouring Jordan.

The contract, worth $500m, runs for 15 years and will see the Houston-based, New York-listed company supply about 66bn cubic feet of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar field to Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine, both of which have facilities near the shore of the Dead Sea.

#Jordanie
#gaz_naturel
#Israël

The Dead Sea Lives ! - Issue 10 : Mergers & Acquisitions
▻http://nautil.us/issue/10/mergers--acquisitions/the-dead-sea-lives

http://static.nautil.us/2645_a7789ef88d599b8df86bbee632b2994d.png

Half a lifetime ago, in 1979, I traveled with my college roommate to one of the wonders of the world, a giant salt lake linking Israel and Jordan called the Dead Sea. We arrived at the nearby Ein Gedi Spa at the foot of the Judean Hills, donned swimsuits, and took a short stroll into an expanse of iridescent blue 10 times saltier than the Atlantic back home. I splayed my arms and legs and bobbed in the sun like a buoy, unsinkable in a legendary pool revered for its healing properties 1,338 feet below sea level, the lowest spot on Earth. When I returned last November, I was thrilled to find the spa and its restaurant still intact. But instead of sauntering to the shore, I had to take a trolley—a rough and tumble ride across a mile of sand and rocks to a body of water visibly smaller (...)

Red Sea water desalination project moving ahead | The Jordan Times
▻http://jordantimes.com/red-sea-water-desalination-project-moving-ahead

The Cabinet on Sunday announced it has decided to move ahead with the first phase of a project to desalinate Red Sea water and save the shrinking Dead Sea.

#Jordanie
#Mer_Morte
#désalinisation

Israel rejects Palestinian claims, registers Dead Sea land as state land - National Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-rejects-palestinian-claims-registers-dead-sea-land-as-state-land.pre

Some 35,000 acres of land previously under water are now exposed due to the shrinking sea line of the Dead Sea. Palestinians, who had hoped to claim it as their own for a tourism project, have lost out to the State of Israel.

Middle East loses freshwater equal to Dead Sea: NASA
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/middle-east-loses-freshwater-equal-dead-sea-nasa

Almost 60 percent of the water loss is due to overdrawing groundwater from underground reservoirs faster than it could be replenished.

The quantity lost is “enough water to meet the needs of tens of millions to more than a hundred million people in the region each year, depending on regional water use standards and availability," said Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine.

“The Middle East just does not have that much water to begin with, and it’s a part of the world that will be experiencing less rainfall with climate change,” said Famiglietti, cited in the press release.

“Those dry areas are getting dryer. The Middle East and the world’s other arid regions need to manage available water resources as best they can,” he said.

Overall effects of less fresh water, beyond losing water necessary for survival, include the loss of vegetation and wildlife.

The quality of the remaining freshwater is also threatened as saltwater migrates inland and contaminates the water supply.

Israeli fence construction cuts off migration from Egypt | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/31/israeli-fence-cuts-migration-egypt?CMP=twt_fd

The fence along Israel’s southern border is estimated to have cost around 1.4bn shekels (£240m). Israel now has physical barriers along all its land borders apart from one section abutting Jordan, from Eilat to the Dead Sea. Plans to erect a fence along that border are under discussion. (...)

The purpose of the fence is to deter illegal immigration, cross-border militant activity and the smuggling of drugs and weapons. More than 65,000 migrants‚ mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, have entered Israel illegally from Egypt since 2006, according to government figures.

A US state department report on human rights noted that Israel approved one out of 4,603 applications for asylum in 2011.

#Israël #murs #Soudan #Erythrée #migrations #asile

Une violente charge contre le parlement jordanien qui vient de voter une pension de retraite à vie pour ses membres dans un contexte de sévère crise des finances publiques
How Jordanian Parliament Lost Its Mind And Why Its Time To Dissolve It at The Black Iris of Jordan
►http://www.black-iris.com/2012/04/25/how-jordanian-parliament-lost-its-mind-and-why-its-time-to-dissolve-it

The state of Jordanian parliament today reminds me of the Dead Sea. It’s the lowest point on Earth, it’s a body of water where nothing can survive, and it continues to recede every year causing an increasingly dire situation. The events in parliament that have transpired in the past few days and weeks have come to demonstrate the degree to which our parliament has hit rock bottom.

#Jordanie

Un méga-projet très sensible entre la Mer Rouge et la Mer Morte.
Dans le contexte actuel, ce projet partenarial Israël-Palestine-Jordanie paraît assez incertain.
Red-Dead ‘technically possible’, but risks abound | Jordan Times
►http://www.jordantimes.com/index.php?news=44337

Preliminary results of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study Programme showed that a large-scale conveyance of seawater from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea is technically possible, but might entail risks as well as environmental and social impacts, according to the World Bank.

“Although the studies are not yet finalised, we are able to draw a few preliminary conclusions,” the report said, concluding that the project could deliver large amounts of desalinated water using conventional processes.

The estimated cost of a full-scale conveyance project, including the pipes that would carry water to urban centres, would exceed $10 billion, the organisation said.

Israel’s Dead Sea to get its first gender-divided beach - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
►http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-s-dead-sea-to-get-its-first-gender-divided-beach-1.386157

At the Zohar estuary on the southern shore of the lake, rabbis, cabinet ministers, Knesset members and their minions emerged from the cars.

Everyone was effusive in their praise for the head of the Tamar Regional Council, Dov Litvinov, for his decision to establish a strictly separate bathing beach for men and women.

La lecture de cet article a quelque chose de réjouissant. Les références bibliques de Silvan Shalom dans ce contexte sont carrément bienvenues.