Some 500 Israelis participated in the fifth annual Tel Aviv Water Fight last Friday, despite Water Authority officials requesting the event be cancelled this year due to the severe water shortage.
Organizers of the event brushed off criticism, noting that participants were explicitly instructed not to bring water from home, and to instead to draw water directly from the fountain in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, which is not used for any other purpose.
A Water Authority official said the problem with the water fight was not whether or not water was actually being wasted at it, but rather the inappropriate image of a water fight in a country facing a possible full-scale drought.