Boston Globe reporter defends absence of Bedouin and Palestinians from article on water in the Negev

Boston-area Palestinian rights activist Nancy Murray recently wrote Boston Globe reporter Erin Ailworth about her November 17th article “In Israel, water where there was none” and you can read their correspondence below. Here’s a taste of Ailworth’s article:

On the chalky lower slopes of the Hebron Hills, in the midst of the scorched Israeli desert, there is an expanse known as “Green land,” where grapes grow lush on the vine, fruit orchards flourish, and a man-made forest of more than 4 million trees rises toward the sky.

Called Yatir, the forest and the vineyards it surrounds are potent symbols of Israel’s battle with nature. With science, technology, and, yes, a good amount of chutzpah, the arid country has figured out what few other desert regions have: how to squeeze enough water from a parched landscape to sustain a nation.

You can see Joel Wood’s Mondoweiss post on the same article here for more information on Yatir.

Murray wrote Ailworth to challenge her on the absolute lack of context in her piece regarding water in Israel/Palestine, and the inequity that exists between Israeli Jews, Bedouin and Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under occupation (Ed. note: Ailworth’s reporting appeared in the Globe but was funded through the International Center for Journalists’ Bringing Home the World program).

Here is their exchange:

From: Nancy Murray
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:04:12 -0500
To: <erin.ailworth@globe.com>

Subject: Your November 17 piece on Israel and Water

Hello Erin Ailworth,

I too just returned from a trip to Israel and after reading your piece, feel we must have been visiting completely different places.  Or perhaps you didn’t talk to any Palestinians – either those who are citizens of Israel and who are being cleared out of the Negev desert while water-greedy eucalyptus trees are being planted over their land or those under occupation
whose West Bank aquifer has been appropriated by Israel, leaving them with only a fraction of the water to which Israeli settlers have access?

Are you really unaware that Israel was not built on “once-barren land” but on the destruction of Palestinian villages and appropriation of groves of fruit trees and Bedouin grazing land. Where do you think ‘Jaffa oranges’, for instance, came from?

Your article appeared straight from the ‘Brand Israel’ hasbara mill – in short, propaganda.  I would have expected considerably more from the International Center for Journalists’ ‘Bringing Home the World’ program.

Dr. Nancy Murray
Cambridge, MA

Ailworth responded:

From: “Ailworth, Erin” <eailworth@globe.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:09:24 -0500
To: Nancy Murray

Subject: Re: Your November 17 piece on Israel and Water

Nancy —

I recognize that Israel evokes many emotions in people, and that everyone will have their different viewpoint on the political issues there.

The story I wrote was focused on water technology, rather than politics. My editor and I discussed the West Bank and Palestine and what role, if any they should play in my story. Given my lack of knowledge of those areas, and the limited amount of time I was able to spend in Israel, we felt it was better to err on the side of caution rather than try to tackle a tense, politically charged topic that I am not yet well-versed in. What you read is a true representation of the time I spent in Israel and the conversations that I had with people while there.

I hope to write more about water issues, but will leave stories about the West Bank and Palestine to those reporters who are more of an expert on the topic than I am.

Thanks for reading — Erin

Murray wrote Ailworth back to challenge her assertion that it is possible to separate water and politics in Israel/Palestine, and on the fact that she doesn’t seem to be aware that there are Palestinians and Bedouin who live in Israel, not just the West Bank:

From: Nancy Murray
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:09:21 -0500
To: “Ailworth, Erin” <eailworth@globe.com>

Subject: Re: Your November 17 piece on Israel and Water

Hello Erin,
Thanks for your reply.

I would argue that there is simply no way to write about water in Israel without taking politics into consideration.   And  in my comments to you, I am not referring just to the ‘West Bank’ and ‘Palestine.’   Bedouin – some 70,000 of them — whose land and sources of water are now being stolen in the Negev to make way for just about the most inappropriate kind of trees one can imagine being planted in a desert (eucalyptus trees – which are often used to drain swamps) – are ISRAELIS.  So are the Palestinians of the Nazareth/Galilee region who are Israeli citizens but also face discrimination in the allocation of water as in everything else.   Why?  Because as citizens, they have citizenship rights to water but not NATIONAL rights to water.  Only Jews get enjoy national rights – they get their water subsidized by the State and Palestinian farmers WITHIN ISRAEL simply can’t compete.

If you have another chance to go to Israel I suggest you talk to some non Jewish citizens, who make up at least 20 percent of the total and are the people (or the descendants of people) whose methods of farming were very much in tune with the ecology of the region before the State of Israel planted non-indigenous forests to disguise their destroyed villages and started perpetrating myths about ‘making the desert bloom.”

Nancy

Ailworth has not yet responded.