Introduction

Water has a mind of its own. One of its characteristics is that it doesn't follow the rules of modern nation-states. When the globe was being carved up into states during the 19th and 20th centuries resulting from the breakup of great empires, the world's watersheds left an indelible link among newly formed political entities. Under this new global structure, water has often been managed haphazardly according to the politics of states. The history of the politics of the Jordan watershed illustrates this well. The Middle East, with its recent history of conflict, is usually pointed to as the region most likely to explode over water. At first glance, this depiction may seem reasonable. The Six Day War in 1967 was preceded by two years of gunfire between headwaters (1).

A closer look at the history of hydropolitics reveals a much different potential. Although there have been conflicts over water in modern history, what is less well known is that more than 3,600 treaties have been signed over various aspects of international waters (2). Rather than being a source of conflict between states, water has frequently been a source of peace. The efforts between the Israelis and the Palestinians over the past nine years to find a way to manage their shared water resources as part of the Middle East peace process provide a rich case study in both international negotiation and joint water resource management.

This thesis will focus on the period from the beginning of the Middle East peace process initiated at the Madrid Conference in 1991 up to the present and will be divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces the history of the of the Jordan watershed, starting with the events which precipitated from the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. This will provide the background for understanding the current relationships between humans, land and water between Israel and its neighbors and sets the context of the current peace process.

Chapter two focuses on the role of the Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources in the Middle East peace process. The two track negotiation structure of the peace process enabled parties to meet each other in an environment which focused on the hard political issues in the bilateral negotiations, and in a more technical environment in the multilateral negotiations which aimed to foster trust based on mutual concern over regional issues. By changing the perspective toward regional water issues, the working group on water has promoted trust between Israelis and the Palestinians and created an avenue to mitigate the power imbalance that exists between the two groups.

The third chapter examines the implementation of the water accords set out in the Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement of 1995. Over the past five years, these parties have come together for the first time through an interim institutional arrangement to jointly manage their shared water resources. This chapter examines the successes and the ongoing problems of implementing the water accords.

Finally, the fourth chapter looks at three events relating to the implementation of the Israeli-Jordanian water agreement. By identifying strengths and weakness in the Israeli-Jordanian agreement, the aim is to find lessons learned for a permanent water agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Middle East peace process broke new ground in the relations between Israel and the Palestinians over the issue of water. By providing an inclusive forum to discuss regional water issues while emphasizing the technical rather than the political aspects of water, the Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources has been able to promote trust and better working relationships between Israel and the Palestinians. The various water projects instigated in the working group have continued with ongoing support and participation. The implementation of Article 40 of the Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement has had some successes as well as its share of problems. One of the main problems is that the current joint water management structure reinforces the power imbalance between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The final status agreement must find a way to address this power imbalance. Finally, the Israeli-Jordanian water agreement offers valuable lessons for a future Israeli-Palestinian water agreement. Issues such as provisions for water emergency situations, and clear language over water allocations and cost allocations can cause further dispute if they are not properly addressed in an agreement.

Table of Contents

1. Aaron Wolf, Along the Jordan River ( Nations University Press, 1995), 49.

2. Aaron Wolf, “Conflict and Cooperation Along International Waterways,” Green Cross International. 5 March 1999.