eBook Power and Water in the Middle East: The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict ePub

The waters of the Jordan Basin attract a great deal of analysis as so much is expected of them. In 1948 there were about three million people living in the Jordan Basin. By the early twenty-first century there were about eighteen millions. It is remarkable that water wars have not been a constant and high profile feature of the international relations of this spectacularly conflictual region.

There has been armed conflict over water. In the 1962-1964 period Syrian artillery stopped Israel from constructing its water carrier from the chosen site on the upper Jordan. In the same period Israeli artillery and jets stopped Syria from constructing a diversion from the Banias tributary in Golan to the Yarmuk. Since then there has been no inter-state armed conflict over water. Not in the Jordan Basin. Not in the Middle East. Not anywhere in the world. States do not go to war over water. The absence of armed conflict does not, however, mean that there is no conflict. This message is the main and very influential insight of Mark Zeitoun's excellent study.

The basin has enough water to underpin water and food self-sufficiency for only about three millions. By the mid-1960s the population of the basin had reached about eight millions. This inadequacy of water resources water has not proved to be a high politics issue despite its elemental role for society and economies. Other challenges rank much higher for the political leaders of the basin. The reason the tension over water has intensified is because all five economies in the basin have experienced periods of mass immigration - sometimes wanted and planned. But more usually it was the result of political dislocations within the basin. Zeitoun's very useful study engages with the realities of these demographically induced water deficits.

The author is a water engineer who has worked for over a decade providing water services in war and post-conflict zones such as the Congo and Iraq. His efforts at reconstruction of damaged water infrastrcuture in the West Bank and Gaza from 2000 onwards allowed him to observe the intense local conflicts in Palestinian communities over access to domestic water services and over water to secure livelihoods. It was all too evident that allocation of everything was asymmetric. In his deeply researched analysis he shows that Israel has - during the second half of the twentieth century - secured from the Jordan Basin's surface and groundwaters sufficient water to meet one third of its water needs for water and food self-sufficiency. This came at a cost to Israel's neighbours. During the same period Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza fell to a position where they only had one twentieth of the water they needed.

Even better than the analysis of the asymmetric outcomes of the struggle over water resources is the analysis of the The author has made accessible a range of relevant theory to reveal how power asymmetries have caused the weaker players to lose out to the strong. The analysis is particularly clear and persuasive when the author deploys Steven Lukes' concepts of the three faces of power - coercive, bargaining and ideational - to show how Palestine and to a lesser extent Jordan have lost out to Israel. In this book and in his other very ueseful articles on hydrolpolitics the author has shown how a hydro-hegemon can shape the international relations of a basin to advance its security and disenhance that of its weaker neighbours.

The book is the most important contribution to date to the analysis of transboundary relations in the Jordan Basin. It also contributes significantly to the current global debates on these issues. It will be of use to those who know the hydrology and the hydrogeology of the Jordan Basin as well as to those who know something of the potential of the technologies of water re-use and desalination. They will learn about the role of diversified and strong political economies in reducing the impact of water scarcity. They will also learn that importing water intensive commodities such as staple foods has dangerously reduced the political salience of water scarcity. The author shows how these virtual water `imports' have distorted the discourse over water and have reduced the rate of water policy reform. Specialists in the international relations of transboundary relations over water, and their students, will also be immensely helped by the author's fluent exemplification of the Copenhagen School's typology of conflict. This framework has enabled the author to communicate his concerns about the ways the power asymmetries of the Jordan Basin have been obscured by the hegemon. The analysis shows that violent conflict is occasional. And it demonstrates conclusively that the securitized and politicized forms of conflict are eternal in the asymmetric circumstances of the Jordan Basin. Water is a very highly politicized feature of the conflictual international relations of the Jordan basin. The advantageous position achieved by Israel through its access to coercive, bargaining and ideational power has resulted in its securtisation of access to water resources, without resorting to violent conflict to achieve its goals.

Very insightful book.