Beyond Complicit:
TU Berlin is Legitimizing Illegal Settlements and Optimizing Water Apartheid
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Between 2017 and 2021, the Technical University of Berlin coordinated the MedWater project under Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s (BMBF, now BMFTR) Water as a Global Resource programme. The project focused on the Western Mountain Aquifer – the largest groundwater reservoir in historic Palestine, its recharge zone located primarily under the occupied West Bank. Officially, MedWater was presented as neutral research in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goal of “water for all”. In practice, the project materially supported Israel’s apartheid water regime and violated international and German law, using 1.8 million € of public funds. This report documents the following key findings that showcase TU Berlin’s active contribution as a German public institution to Israeli legitimation of illegal settlements and optimization of water apartheid.
Summary
Key Findings
1. Legitimizing Illegal Settlements
TU Berlin included Ariel University as a research partner. The university is located entirely within the illegal settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, established on stolen Palestinian land. Cooperating with this institution thus violates UN Security Council Resolution 2334, EU research guidelines, and Germany’s own 2014 territorial clause.
2. Excluding Palestinians
While TU Berlin publicly claimed Palestinian inclusion, the project’s own final report admits that planned subcontracts with the Palestinian Water Authority and other Palestinian institutions “could not be realized”. In practice, no Palestinian body participated and none received results.
3. Optimizing Water Apartheid
Mekorot, Israel’s state water company is the backbone of the water apartheid system - and TU Berlin chose it as a partner. The UN has documented Mekorot’s discriminatory practices, such as cutting water supply to the neighbouring Palestinian village Kufr Al Deek to prioritize Ariel settlement. The project involved the development of a decision support system for regulating water extraction from the Western Mountain Aquifer. Built in close cooperation with Mekorot and the Israeli Hydrological Service, the DSS enabled users to simulate new wells and pumping rates, and forecast drawdown. It was tailored for Israeli institutions, allowing only them to benefit from the outputs.
Instead of advancing equal access to water, MedWater created a tool to optimize Israel’s extraction from an aquifer where Palestinians already receive less than 14% of the supply.
4. Misuse of Public Funds
A total of 1.8 million € in funding was received from the BMBF, on a project that illegally partnered with institutions located and active in illegally occupied territories while publicly lied about the involvement of Palestinian institutions, violating the territorial clause signed by German foreign ministry in 2014
Legal Violations
Considering the key findings, the fact that the project was based on the western mountain aquifer, whose water resources are mostly located in the West Bank and the fact that no Palestinian institution was involved, this project effectively violates:
International Law
(Multiple UN resolutions, 2024 ICJ Opinion)
EU Research Regulations
(EU Guideline 2013/C 205/05)
German Law
(Supply Chain Act LkSG, Territorial clause)
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