PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY.
On March 27, 2010 the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City, CA opened an exhibit entitled Water: Our Thirsty World. The exhibit, which is scheduled to be on display until June 13, features photographs from National Geographic and coincides with its special issue on water. The exhibit aims to “explore the causes and consider the ramifications of the world’s impending fresh water crisis” through ”environmental, social, political and cultural perspectives.”
Of the 65 photographs on display, 10 are dedicated to Israel, the only country to be negatively portrayed and attacked with false political accusations. The photo captions weave a fiction where Israel hoards water and steals from its neighbors, with photographs depicting Israelis relaxing by overflowing pools and beautiful beaches while others suffer from drought.
Israel is a world leader in water resource management and regularly shares its knowledge with nations around the world. Water is not a weapon and the Annenberg Foundation along with National Geographic had an opportunity to elevate the discourse of global water resources – instead the exhibit is used to manufacture a crude political attack against Israel. The specific Israel-related photos are below, or you may see the exhibit for yourself at http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/. Here are some facts:
- Israel, with a 75% water recycling rate, is the world's number one water recycler. The second largest water recycler is Spain, with a rate of 12%.
- Israeli-invented Drip Irrigation helped achieve 70%-80% of water efficiency in agriculture -the highest rate in the world.
- Israel is home to the world's largest Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant, annually producing 100 million m3 at the low cost of approximately $0.52 per m3 of water - the most cost-efficient of its kind in the world.
- Israel's total water consumption has remained the same since the 1960s, despite a growing population, rising water requirements and increasing agricultural production.
- Since 1958, MASHAV – the Center for International Cooperation of the Foreign Ministry of Israel, has trained almost 200,000 course participants from approximately 140 countries and has developed dozens of demonstration projects worldwide in fields of Israeli expertise including water resource management.
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This is the letter I wrote in reaction to this issue.
May 7, 2010
Dear Ms. Lowry,
I started to receive phone calls on Monday concerning the Annenberg Photography Museum exhibit on the world’s water resources. These phone calls expressed alarm and upset as to the way that Israel was depicted in the photo captions as well as the use of the word Palestine to name a country which has yet to be created. I will personally attend your exhibit in the next hours.
Now, I hear that the photographs which discuss the topic of fresh water as a scarce and endangered natural resource have been used to blame and delegitimize Israel for global water abuse and for abuse of the Palestinians.
The claims that Israel is abusing Arab water rights is part of the age old anti-Semitic slogans that stem back to the notorious Russian created Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This classic book of anti-Semitic fabrications today rates as the second most purchased book next to the Koran in the Arab nations. The book is famous for teaching the lies that claim Jews poisoned Christian wells, they kidnapped Christian children for ritual slaughter and used their blood for baking Passover mazah.
Today's updated version of the Protocols is that the Jews are stealing, poisoning and polluting the water of the Arabs. The absurdity is that the Arabs control significant water sources for Israel. Israel lives under massive pressure to find new sources of water because the Arabs have continually compromised Israeli water supplies and have done much to contaminate Israeli water.
This is why Israel needs to build and operate at least five major desalination plants to provide its fresh water because it knows that the Arab world poses a major threat to its water supply. Beyond that, Israel has now built over 400 desalination plants around the world to supply the global water shortage. No Arab country is allowed to have an Israeli desalination plant because the Arab world refuses to recognize that Israel is there to help them live. For them, it is more important to boycott Israeli products than to provide life necessities for its citizens.
Gaza was given billions of dollars by the world bank and part of that was to be used to build a waste water treatment plant. That money was diverted from humanitarian needs and right now, Gaza waste water goes untreated directly into the Mediterranean, seriously polluting the sea for hundreds of miles. Palestinians have refused Israeli water supplies and water technology. They have illegally drilled wells by the 100’s in places that have destroyed the aquifers and therefore have ruined beyond repair vast miles of underground water supplies.
Israel supplies water to Gaza. Israel's Ashkelon desalination plant pumps its newly made fresh water into Israel’s water supply line that feeds into Gaza. Gaza rockets have been aimed and fired at the desalination plant and still Israel supplies Gaza with fresh drinking water.
Israel is the only place in the world who is close to achieving a 95% water reclamation rate. Los Angeles reclaims less than 1% of its water and loses virtually all of its rain water to the ocean. Israel is working to capture and purify its rainwater as well as to reclaim most of its used water. It is actively teaching other countries of the world to do the same. The Ben Gurion University of the Negev has recently developed a water filter that is so advanced that it is able to perfectly purify the most extreme level of polluted water.
Israeli developed drip irrigation has revolutionize farming and food production around the globe. This technology is capable of saving a farmer up to 90 percent of water. Many global factories have copied drip irrigation but Israel still supplies over 50% of the entire world's drip irrigation equipment.
An Israeli company has recently developed a commercial ability to safely harvest fresh water from air humidity. The equipment is capable of producing from the air 80,000 gallons of water in a 24 hour period. This Israeli development is a major gift to the water starved world.
The WATEC International Conference on Water and Energy Technology takes place yearly in Israel and is attended by the world community. The last conference in November, 2009, was attended by over 100 nations. At that conference, Israel presents the breakthrough technologies for protecting, conserving and producing fresh water.
If Israel was allowed to live in peace and it was allowed to share its water conservation, purification, reclamation, creation and desalination abilities with the Arab world, yes, the world would be a different place. But now, it is more popular to blame Israel for as many world problems as possible and water fits into the fabricated blame Israel narrative.
It seems that the National Geographic exhibit and the Annenberg Photography Museum fell into the “blame Israel” narrative. They have chosen to not look at the facts and to deal with the real story
Perhaps someday, National Geographic and the Annenberg museum will remove its anti-Israel political slander and will give recognition to the fact that Israel excels as one of the top world leaders in protecting, preserving and expanding fresh water resources and ensuring fresh water for generations to come.
I know it would take some courage to tell the facts versus purporting the popular narrative. It will be your challenge to adjust your policies and to arrive at that position.
Sincerely,
Daryl Temkin, Ph.D.
Founder,
Israel Institute for the Advancement of Alternative Energy
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Daryl Temkin, Ph.D. is the founder of the Israel Institute for the Advancement of Alternative Energy. For more information, Please go to www.Israel-Institute.org.
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