this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 208 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

It is useful to have lots of stupid laws. It makes people feel powerless and frustrated. It means the police can always find excuses to persecute you.

The technicalities of the individual laws are not important. It's the psychological effect of the whole body of laws on a people.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 11 months ago (4 children)

The US does the same thing. People need to push back. Hard.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It is useful to have lots of stupid laws. It makes people feel powerless and frustrated. It means the police can always find excuses to persecute you.

How many laws does the US have again?

[–] sukhmel 29 points 11 months ago

Nothing in his comment says that the US is not an example of this strategy 🤔

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well an estimate from 2008 put it at upwards of 4,000 just as federal crimes. Not to even touch on state matters ,tax, civil affronts, etc.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

If we don't know the exact number, then it's too high. Lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago
  • me, complaining about the Acceptable Use Policy I had to sign at work.
[–] [email protected] 91 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

Given the context, this seems more evil than is probably intended.

There are laws about collection and storage of rainwater all over the world unrelated to genocide. Water falling from the sky is the source of aquifers, lakes, and rivers that are important for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago

The problem here is that the Palestine people aren’t being given control of their water.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago

Yeah there are good reasons to limit or prevent rainwater collection in order to preserve necessary river systems or agricultural areas etc.

However I highly highly doubt anything good faith is going on here.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

The context is very straightfoward. It is an occupied territory. The occupier claims ownership of natural ressources in the occupied territory. This is typical imperialist behaviour and illegal under international law.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

https://youtu.be/QZkSRlIs9o0?si=l7jYk8g92oIS4t3b

The evil part is having laws like this and then filling in their water sources with concrete.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

To add what others said (like Israel making up rules for Palestine), the people of Palestine are being attacked and their infrastructure targeted. It is pretty evil to destroy the water supply and then say: "but you can't get it elsewhere :)".
I don't think this is necessarily the case here, but laws like this are often an attempt to offer the appearance of legitimacy to acts of violence (i.e. "yes we imprisoned them but they broke the law!").

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

and who better to claim ownership over the rain falling on palastinian soil than the israeli government

i dont think you can justify this stuff, at best make it sound slightly less evil

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Water for agricultural and domnestic use usually is fed back to the water cycle, though.

Watering my veggies is distinct from e.g. building a dam, or something.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You could, though, for example, set up a large collection system for water that would normally be fed into a tributary that other farmers are using downstream for irrigation. A company with enough resources to collect and bottle rainwater for profit across a large area that would otherwise feed into aquifers could bleed a small farming community dry.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't call that "domnestic or agricultural" use anymore.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Right, it's just that not all rainwater collection is inherently domestic or agricultural, and that's why some places (ostensibly, at least) have laws restricting it, with the goal being to keep it feeding into the water cycle and not shipping it elsewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

AFAIK, there is no such laws in Europe. I know for parts of USA and Israel. Correct me if I am wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There are laws about collection and storage of rainwater all over the world unrelated to genocide.

I never seen them before. Too much rainwater is a problem, but not collecting it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

It's illegal for me to have rain barrels off my gutters. I wanted them to use the water for my garden. I'm not in any area with existing water shortage or drought issues either.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It can be actually. People upstream of water sources - often wealthy people with land but sometimes a collective of local farmers - build dams or retaining ponds to save the water for themselves and on a significant scale can limit the amount of water that goes downstream.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It makes more sense to limit the amount of water collected than to outright banning it tho.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Oh I think it’s meant to be just as evil as it looks.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don't even... how do you prevent that?

[–] [email protected] 62 points 11 months ago

Guns and bombs usually do the trick

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What's the usual way of stopping someone from collecting rain water?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Fines/violence, usually.

It's actually not uncommon to have laws that restrict gathering rain water in many places. Lots of US states do as well. If water is collected locally on a mass scale, it messes with water tables/rivers/lakes/etc.

Forbidding it when a place doesnt have otherwise dependable water infastructure is inhuman however.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I imagine the ban on rainwater collection is from before the war, and I imagine there are similar laws in Israel.

There’s lots to be mad at the Israelis for doing. We don’t need to make things up. This article on water in Gaza makes a good point:

A graphic representation of the unfair restrictions is that while many Jewish settlements have swimming pools, Palestinians in “Area C” of the West Bank are not allowed cisterns for collecting rainwater.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Killing them

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Rain is the property…”

Wow.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The United States does the same thing all over the Southwest. Rural people will tell you.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It might be the same as Canada where you only can with a permit just to be sure people aren't drinking mold water

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I'd guess it's for droughts

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

There's a difference between needing a permit to collect rainwater because the water belongs to everyone, and being forbidden from collecting rainwater because the water belongs to an oppressing party.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

isn't the point there that shit is super dry and if you leech the water in the wrong places the ground can't handle it?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's illegal in some states as well.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I remember learning about this while having This Old House playing in the background.

Here's a map of the regulations for each state (currently the heaviest looks like it is restricted by volume and/or medium of collection) https://www.energy.gov/femp/rainwater-harvesting-regulations-map

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Hamas has banned the digging of wells since 2021. I don't see how they would permit the harvesting of rainwater, even if there weren't Israeli legal regulations in place (which seem to be on par with many other countries' laws). That plus their systematic dismantling of working water infrastructure for rocket parts has had it's effects.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

But hamas collect the water and then make bombs to attack for no specific reason.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Water bombs. They launch kegs full of water to bankrupt Israel water companies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Should have added /s at the end. [Differentiating intentions is really hard these days]

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

What is water? H2O. What does the H stand for? Hydrogen. Ever heard of hydrogen bombs?

Still think Hamas (which is all Palestinians, UN officials, and doctors in hospitals, obviously) just want water do "drink" and "not die of dehydration"?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Great source! Phrased differently - can't build a cistern without a permit - but they are certainly painted as right a-holes about it. Thanks for the source!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago
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