Water Conflict
Prepared by: Hadeel Wahdan
The conflict and problems over water in the
occupied Palestinian territories, and in the middle east as a whole, stem
from three crucial factors: Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian
land and territorial expansion; the consequent political uncertainty in
the wider middle east which prevents joint management and accountability
of largely shared water resources; and limited water resources themselves
which in this semi-arid region, are vital for development and impinge on
wider security issues for all countries in the region.
During the years of Israel’s occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel has pursued a policy of taking control
of Palestinian water resources for the use inside it’s own territory. Palestinian
agriculture, the mainstay of the local economy in the occupied territories,
has been severely hit as a result.
This policy was quite clear in so many public
temples, but the Israeli ministry of agriculture made the strongest of
all in 1990 when said “it’s difficult to conceive of any political solution
consistent with Israel’s survival that does not involve complete continued
Israeli control of the west bank’s water and sewage system and of the associated
infrastructure including the power supply and road network essential to
their operation maintenance and accessibility”.
The international community, including those
institutions that coordinate international law and practice on a global
level, has failed, over the 27 years of Israeli occupation, to protect
Palestinian water right. It remains to be seen what the recent peace agreement
between the PLO and Israel will resolve for the area’s dwindling water
supplies.
Palestinians believe their right to sovereignty
over their water resources must be recognized, as must their right to decide
how to use those water resources, they believe it’s their right to participate,
on an equal basis, in any jointly-managed committee or agreement on the
issue of water resources, including those that are shared. While international
law has failed them in the past, many Palestinians believe that within
a negotiated peace agreement, international legislation should be used
to ensure that their rights and needs are recognized.
According to the Palestinian Hydrology Group
reports (PHG), Israel’s water policy has been unilateral and exclusive
in character. Various official Israeli statement, however, have attempted
to gloss over the effects of Israel policies on Palestinian living under
occupation: an Israeli foreign ministry background paper asserts that “since
1967, the previous Jordanian civil law has been maintained in Judea and
Samaria requests for the drilling of new wells for household uses have
been granted as a matter of course, and the civil administration has granted
permits to drill wells for agricultural purposes when the criterion of
the law are full filled”.
The reality is different, the lack of water
resources development together with confiscation of wells on “absentee
property” means that today there are fewer wells in the Jordan valley providing
less water for Palestinian agriculture than were available on the eve of
the 1967 war.
More worrying, however, is that the development
and investment plans for the future completely ignore Palestinian interests
and instead allow for development and expansion of water supplies to Israeli
settlements.
While Israel talks about peace, the joint and
continues to implement policies that amount to de facto annexation of the
occupied territories and their natural resources.
The deep drilling at Herodian near Bethlehem
IN 1987 worried many Palestinian’s, this policy of expropriating the water
reserves was part of a wider policy of effectively forcing Palestinian’s
off their land.