Water Management in the West Bank: Implications on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Publisher: Babes-Bolyai University and University of Port Harcourt
Author(s): Boma Amaso and Fidelis Allen
Date: 2020
Topics: Climate Change, Renewable Resources
Countries: Israel, Palestine
The struggle for scarce natural resources (like water) exacerbated by climate change often leads to conflict. This paper exposes the implications of the control and distribution of water between the Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank. The objective of this paper was to discover how this struggle in a water-stressed area, impacts the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The intraspecific competition theory from the discipline of Ecology was operationalized to give the paper an understanding of the relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians as regards water distribution in the West Bank, and the resultant consequences caused by this struggle. The paper is qualitative, and the content analysis method was utilized in analyzing secondary data collected for this research. The paper finds that beyond the political issues of statehood, the water resources strategically located within and around the West Bank, like the Western Aquifer, Northeastern, and the Eastern Aquifer remain catalysts for the prolongation of the conflict, as Israel needs these water channels to support its growing and expanding population. The paper also finds that the annexation and building of settlements in the West Bank by Israel have the objective of the continued control over these water resources for the sustenance of the State of Israel at the detriment of the Palestinian people. It concludes that as long as Israel continues to rely on water from the West Bank, a sovereign Palestine state will remain in Limbo. The paper recommends that greater international pressure be mounted on the State of Israel to ensure it cooperates with the Palestinians, to allow for a more equitable distribution of water in the West Bank.