EDITORIAL
Education provides
target for legislators
The budget ax has fallen, and it's the heads of students
that are going to roll. Lawmakers have targeted overy lev
el of education throughout Oregon for drastically dis
proportionate budget cuts for one simple reason — edu
cation is not their priority.
Legislators’ priority is getting re-elected, and the way
to do that is to appease their constituencies. Unfortu
nately. the constituency for most legislators does not
include students,
because students do not
vote, nor do they pay
taxes.
Even when students
do vote, their impact is
limited to the immedi
ate campus community,
as ovident by tho re
election of Eugene Rep
resentative Ijtrry Camp
bell, who is quickly
becoming the single
greatest threat to educa
tion In recent state his
tory.
Campbell, who has
Campbell, who hat
never been a Mend
of higher
education, la now
Betting Ms eights
on the state% K-f 2
system, proposing
a 10 percent cut of
$300 million from
state school
support.
never men « menu ui
higher education, is now setting his sights on the stale's
K-12 system, proposing a 10 percent cut of S300 mil
lion from state school support
If those cuts ore passed, the damage to public schools
will bo tremendous and. for the most part, irrecoverable.
The Eugene 4-J School District could conceivably be
forced to cut all extra-curricular activities at all levels.
What Campbell may not have realized is those cuts
will have an impact on families throughout the slate.
Legislators can afford to ignore the concerns of college
students. They cannot ignore the concerns of the parents
of all the children who will bo affected.
The students who lobbied In Salem Wednesday are on
the right train but the wrong track. They need to join forces
with lobbyists for K-12 education and take their message
to the people. Legislators will listen to their constituents,
but their constituents need to Ire informed about the issues
and dilemmas surrounding education in this state.
One more time
Excerpt from ODE, May 22, 1917.
"War lias Other Horrors Than Bullets
and Blood: Recruits Must Do own Cooking"
It may be that those young men who unknowingly
slacked a duty and dodged an opportunity when mother
handed them the dish towel, will bo regular home boys
after the smoko of war clears away.
Several men in the company have suggested that the
girls domestic science at the high school lie drafted in as
temporary instructors and that each soldier be taught
bv an individual tutor.
Oregon Daily
Emerald
Pubm
N«n Ednor
Editorial Editor
Graphics Editor
Entertainment Editor
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..raUGETME
COMMENTARY
Conference ignores Middle East
M Reza Behnam
ho 19‘n Public Interest
Environmental Low Con
JL ferenue. which emphasizes
indigenous peoples and their
roots, has excluded the Middle
East and its indigenous peoples
and their sacred roots. 'Hie exclu
sion of the Middle East two years
after the Gulf War is astonishing,
if not plain stupid.
The following article unravels
public interest and the politics
of water in the territories under
Israeli occupation in Palestine.
Although questions of Palestin
ian statehood, self-determina
tion. security and the return of
lands have been in the forefront
of the Middle East peace talks
since October 1991. the critical
dilemma of who will control
water in the area is a paramount
concern lor all parties.
Among tin; many burdensome
responsibilities facing the Israeli
military coordinator of govern
ment activities in the West Hank,
the (k)lan Heights and Gaza Strip
is controlling water — from
drilling new wells to bringing
water to dinner tables. For 25
years the Israeli armed forces
have set water policies in the
occupied Palestinian territories.
Among the myriad of difficult
issues facing negotiators at the
Middle East peace process, per
haps none is as important as
guidelines for the distribution of
water Water is a precious
resource in all of the Middle
East; future conflicts in the
region will be fought over water
rather than "old-fashioned”
things such as oil.
At issue in the peace process
is control of land, hut beneath
the surface is the critical
resource that sustains life. While
water is ossentia! to the preser
vation of the state of Israel, it is
basically the only natural
rusource the Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza possess.
The war of June 1967 that
yielded the occupied territories
to the Israeli state was brought
on largely over water-related
matters. Before the Six-Day War.
Israel extracted 300 million
cubic meters of water a year
from an aquifer (underground
reservoir) in the hills of the West
Bank, which was then without
Iordan.
The Arabs of the West Hank
used only a fraction of this
amount, pumping 20 million
cubic meters. This remains
roughly the position today.
While the aquifer provides
about a fifth of Israel's water.
Arabs have been prevented by
the Israeli authorities from
increasing their extractions.
The Israelis have dug more
wells to supply West Hank set
tlements. but most ol the
aquifer's water continues to he
taken from wells outside the
West Bank
Within its pre-1967 borders.
Israel was able to tap the waters
of the Sea of Galilee, a giant nat
ural holding reservoir on the riv
er Jordan Israel’s National
Water Carrier, a giant pipeline
three meters in diameter, can
transport more than one million
cubic meters of water a day from
the Sea of Galilee across the
country, down the coast and on
into the Negev
Israel was able to recreate the
river Ionian as a pipeline within
its own territory after the Six
Day War, when most of the Jor
dan and its catchment, includ
ing the Golan Heights, full into
Israeli hands.
Israel now meets a full 30 per
cent of its entire water needs by
direr.t extraction and diversion
from West Bank sources. This
translates to BO percent of West
Bank reserves. The influx of
Jewish immigrants from the
Commonwealth of Independent
States could raise annual
demand for water by 650 mil
lion cubic meters, according to
the Israeli Water Authority.
Under the Israeli quota sys
tem, Palestinian inhabitants of
the West Bank receive only a
fraction of the water allowed the
Israeli: 115-M2 cubic meters per
person, in contrast to 537 cubic
meters in Israel proper and 965
cubic meters per Israeli settler in
the West Bank itself.
In addition, the Palestinians
have to pay twice as much for
their water, and farmers receive
none of the subsidies their Israeli
counterparts enjoy. Prior permits
from the military authorities are
necessary for digging new wells
and restoring old ones, as well as
construction of simple water
catch munis. Consequently. Pales
tinian residents of houses or
camps that no longer receive
drinking water must form queues
at a water-pumping station to
receive their ration of water.
In addition, the Israeli agricul
tural sector is allowed unlimited
water, often to produce water
guzzling crops such as tomatoes,
cotton and oranges. This over
pumping to produce a green
Israel has led. in many cases, to
saline intrusion into aquifers
and to water toxicitv.
Of (he two aquifers that supply
Israel's water, one is in the occu
pied territory of the West Bank,
That is geography. Enter politics
and the Israeli apprehension that
if the Middle East peace talks
result in giving back the land to
either Iordan, which has less
water than Israel, or to an
autonomous Palestinian stuto, the
inhabitants of the West Bank
would immediately increase their
use of the aquifer by digging new
w’wlls Tliis could siphon off
Israeli supplies of water.
Water rights and "water secu
rity" are on the minds of all par
ties negotiating for peace in the
Middle East Egyptians. Syrians.
Lebanese. Jordanians. Palestini
ans and Israelis all have water
woes. And water is known as a
zero-sum game — one party's
gain will be another's loss,
Will the peace talks produce a
Palestinian state on the West
Bank? Will the Arab inhabitants
control the water rights there?
Can the two parties cooperate
over water use in the region?
These questions are essential
where water is crucial. Unless
the politics of water distribution
are resolved, the region will
remain unstable. If the countries
in the Middle East do not reach
a water agreement by the end of
this decade, they will be facing
major conflicts instead.
The West Bank's aquifer sym
bolizes the underlying crisis of
the new Middle East. Can gov
ernments look beyond old poli
tics to the region's crucial ecolo
gy? The long-term survival of
everyone requires it.
M Beta Behnam. Ph.D., is
director of the Institute for
Advanced Middle Eastern Stud
ies in Eugene.