Power and Water in the Middle East

Mark Zeitoun is a water engineer with more than a decade of experience in conflict and post conflict zones, including the Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Chad and the Republic of Congo.

• Illustrations ixAcknowledgements xiPreface xiii1 Water Wars or Water Conflicts? 1Why no Water Wars? 2Water and Conflicts 4Water ‘Cooperation’ 7The Role of Power in Water Conflicts 8Why the Palestinian–Israeli Water Conflict? 13Box: Hydrological apartheid in Madama 152 Understanding Power and Water 19Water Conflict Analysis 20Power and Compliance 24Three Dimensions of Power 26Hegemony and Compliance-Producing Mechanisms 30Power and International Water Law 34Power and Discourse: Re-writing Reality 383 An Asymmetrically Distributed Resource 45Overview of the Transboundary Water Flows 45Control Over Water Resources in the West Bank 49Inequitable Transboundary Water Allocations 57Why all the Fuss? 594 Highly Politicised Hydropolitics 63The Broader Political Context Post-Oslo 64A Brief History of the Water Conflict: 1904–2004 65Internal Israeli Tensions – the Agricultural Lobby 72Internal Palestinian Tensions – Challenged Legitimacy 73Contending Hydropolitical Discourses 75Israeli Hydrostrategic Discourse 75Israeli Needs, not Rights Discourse 77viii POWER AND WATERPalestinian Cooperation Discourse 79Palestinian Rights First Discourse 80Donors’ Cooperation, not Rights Discourse 80Accumulation Through Dispossession or a Broader Strategy of Asymmetry? 835 Hard Power – Coercing the Outcome 87Damaged Water Infrastructure, Jenin April 2002 88The Wall 936 Bargaining Power – The Joint Water Committee 99Power Assymetry Structured into the JWC 99Coerced Compliance 102‘Utilitarian’ Compliance 103Normative Compliance 106Israeli ‘Agenda Setting’ 107Conclusion - the Elephant and the Fly 1097 Ideational Power – Imposing Ideas 111Securitisation and the Hasbani River 111Master-Planning for Palestine 114The case of the ‘Extra 78’ and the Eastern Basin 115Desalination for the land-locked West Bank? 117Sanctioning the Discourse 120Conclusion 1228 Hydraulic Power – Dominance of Production 125Israeli Water Production 1948–2003 126Israeli and Palestinian Water Consumption 1948–2003 132Box: On the data of the Israel Water Commission 137Summary Analysis of Water Production and Consumption 1389 Israeli Hydro-Hegemony 145Power Asymmetry Measured 146The Evolution of Control 148Maintaining the Hegemonic Apparatus 151Evaluation of the Form of Hydro-Hegemony 153The Effects of Hydro-Hegemony 155Box: Still dry in Madama 160The Future 162AppendicesA. Diagrams and Photographs 166B. Supporting Documents for Damaged Water Infrastructure of Jenin 169C. Israeli and Palestinian Water Production and Consumption Data 174Notes 179Bibliography 191Index 209

'a compelling story of state-building, inter-state competition, and the central role that water plays in state development' - Water Alternatives; 'washes away another colourful colonial myth and reveals a history of squandered resources, domestic injustice, and regional belligerence... Zeitoun's meticulous investigation of the conflict over water in the region is a convincing read ... it remains essential reading for anybody working on resource management through government ministries, national agencies, and NGOs in the region.' - Arab Studies Journal