APN asks for inclusion of Palestinian Human Dignity during Water-Energy Conference | The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
Image
العربية تطالب بتضمين كرامة الإنسان الفلسطيني في مؤتمر الماء والطاقة

On 6th April, 2016, APN Advocacy Officer Heather Elaydi attended the conference "Energy-Water Nexus: Integrated Energy and Water Planning in the WANA Region” at the King Hussein Club in Amman, Jordan.

The conference was hosted by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, and the WANA Institute.

In his opening speech, HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Chairman of the WANA Institute, stressed the centrality of human dignity and called for an energy-water-human dignity nexus, saying that this cannot be achieved unless and until everyone is a stakeholder. He further stated that our goals in achieving the nexus cannot be attained without the empowerment of civil society organizations.

APN Advocacy Officer Heather Elaydi directed an intervention to HRH Prince El Hassan stating that while a call for inclusion of human dignity is welcome, there is a contradiction between this call for the centrality of human dignity and the framing of the Red-Dead Conveyance Project and the Nobel Gas Energy deal as policy decisions to secure Jordan’s water and energy rather than as political decisions, as these agreements with the Israeli state ask Palestinians to consent to their own dispossession and completely disregard the human dignity of the Palestinian people. HRH Prince El Hassan replied that rights of the Palestinian people do need to be considered in such agreements, stating that there should be a win-win formula or none at all, but also stating that the role Jordan should play in the Palestine-Israel conflict is unclear.