Polio Virus and the Contamination of Israel’s Aquifers

Polio Virus and the Contamination of Israel’s Aquifers

By | 2013-07-31T11:03:25-04:00 July 31st, 2013|Op-Eds|0 Comments
The polio virus has been found in Israel’s water. Its source is not hard to find. The Health Ministry has decided to innoculate 200,000 Israeli children living in the south of the country. This is just the beginning.
 
Israel gave up Gaza, and the Hamas genocidally rocketed pre-1967 Israel-Sderot and Ashkelon.  Israel gave up the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority; the Palestinians Arabs responded with the Intifada.
 
Today, there is a more insidious attack at play. On 3 June 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported:
 
“In Israel, wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was isolated from sewage samples collected on 9 April 2013 in Rahat, southern Israel.  . . .  Genetic sequencing and epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine its origin. Preliminary analyses indicate the strain is not related to the virus currently affecting the Horn of Africa.”
 
Wikipedia states that:
 
“Three serotypes of poliovirus have been identified-poliovirus type 1 (PV1), type 2, (PV2), and type 3 (PV3) – each with a slightly different capseid protein.  All three are extremely virulent and produce the same disease symptoms.  PV1 [the type found in Israel] is the most commonly encountered form, and the one most closely associated with paralysis.”
 
Medical News Today explains:
 
“What causes polio? Polio is caused by the poliovirus, a highly contagious virus specific to humans.  The virus usually enters the environment in the feces of someone who is infected.  In areas with poor sanitation, the virus easily spreads through the fecal-oral route, via contaminated water or food.  In addition, direct contact with a person infected with the virus can cause polio.”
 
On 3 July 2013, Israel’s newspaper Haaretz reported:
 
“Almost 90 percent of sewage from Palestinian towns in the West Bank flows into the environment untreated, contaminating the groundwater and 162 kilometers of streams, according to a report prepared by the Israel Parks and Nature Authority.
 
“The report, prepared for the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Civil Administration in the West Bank, is based on water samples taken from various locales in 2012.  It found that some 50 million cubic meters of sewage flow into the environment from Palestinian towns every year.  Only 5 million cubic meters go to treatment plants, some of which are substandard.  This affects Israel as well as the West Bank, since the polluted streams flow into Israel.. .
 
Israel has tried to cope with the problem by building treatment plants near the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank and treating the contaminated water once it enters Israel.  But the facility built to treat the Hebron Stream − the most polluted of all − can’t handle the volume of waste it receives.  Contaminated water reaches nearby communities, emitting a stench and attracting mosquitoes.”
On 11 July 2013, Arutz Sheva reported:
 
“Traces of the poliomyelitis (Polio) virus are continuing to appear in sewage treatment facilities in southern and central Israel according to the (Israeli) Health Ministry.”  The central areas where the virus has been detected include the Lev Hasharon (Tulkaran-Tel Aviv) area, Modi’in (Green Line), Ramle (Green Line), Tel Aviv, Ashdod (south of Tel Aviv).  The southern areas are Rahat, Be’er Sheva.
 
None of this Palestinian contamination of Israel should come as a surprise because in February 2012, the State of Israel Water Authority, in a report entitled “The Water Issue Between Israel and the Palestinians,” (see http://mfa.gov.il/MFA_Graphics/MFA%20Gallery/Powerpoint/Water-IsraelPA.pps) stated:
 
“The Palestinians constantly breach the [Olso Water] agreement, as shown in the following:
1.    [Omitted  not relevant to this immediate issue.]
2.    The Palestinians do not treat their sewage which flows freely in the [West Bank] streams and into [pre-1967] Israel, contaminating the [pre-1967 Israel] environment and the [pre-1967 Israel coastal] aquifer en route.
3.    The Palestinians are not developing any new water source, either through sewage treatment, or desalination (also in contradiction of the [Olso] Water Agreement, M.L.).”
The key topographic/geologic fact is that what is termed the ‘West Bank’ is the mountains of Judea and Samaria. And any Palestinian untreated sewage water introduced into the  aquifers of the Western salient of the mountains of Judea and Samaria gravitationally migrates underground westward into the aquifers of pre-1967 Israel.  Geologically, there is no functional impermeable dividing line between the political pre- and post- 1967 Israel.  Hence, it is impossible to stop Palestinian Authority untreated sewage water from  contaminating pre-1967 Israel.
 
All the contaminated polio clusters in central Israel are in line with the general westward flow of the contaminated sewage water from the PA.  This makes it very probable that the polio now being discovered in these areas and in southern Israel is from the northern and southern lobes of the area.  And the ceding of Israeli civilian jurisdiction over  Palestinian Authority sewage is a direct result of the Oslo Accords.
Is the Palestinian Authority purposefully and knowingly contaminating Israel’s aquifers with sewage?  Israel has begged the Palestinian Arabs for years to install sewage treatment plants at no cost to them and with funds from abroad.  But the Palestinian Authority has refused to build anything except one small sewage treatment plant.  Given that Palestinian Arab sewage is gravitationally bound to migrate westward into the pre-1967 Israel coastal plain, Palestinians (and Israelis!) could easily have predicted the biological diseases that this untreated sewage water would cause to pre-1967 Israel: Polio, for one.
 
Israel could define this as a possible instance of what the Geneva Convention terms Genocidal War Crimes. Israel and its civilians are being attacked with a form of biological warfare.
The Israeli cabinet debates destroying future Iranian genocidal nuclear warfare a thousand miles away.  Somehow the same Israeli cabinet is impotent to stop current Palestinian Authority  bio-warfare only 3 kilometers away.  In fact, Israel may yet reward the Palestinian Authority’s  bio-warfare with more land!  .
 
Can anyone imagine the cries of “Zionist Biogenocide” against Israel if it were to contaminate the Palestinian Authority aquifers the way the Palestinian Arabs are doing to Israeli aquifers? .”
The Iranians see Israel’s total impotence and appeasement of the Palestinian bio-warfare, and calculate that Israel will be just as impotent and appeasing when they gain their long sought-after nuclear weapoon capacity..
 
.
For more information, please visit www.marklangfan.com
 
mark langfanMark Langfan
The writer, who often writes on security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.