From domestic water to agricultural water: How do donors contribute to the water crises in the occupied Palestinian territories?

Abstract

This article studies the water crises in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the water issues are generally described as an issue between two entities: the Israeli Authorities and the Palestinian Authorities. This is an oversimplification, other actors play a key role. This article focuses on donors' policies about water. The Oslo Agreements are one of the first factor influencing water issues in the OPT. This study demonstrates that donors associate the respect of the Oslo Agreements as the basis for peace and that they focus mainly on the process of Palestinian state-building and on urban water. We show that this framework does not take into account rural water and community-based management. For a few years donors seem to orient their projects toward rural areas and agriculture. In their discourses, donors also link this new interest to the solution of the conflict. Water is depicted as a technical issue. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates that, in this context, donors' representations of water and land are very specific. Water and land are highly political issues. Donors favor irrigated and export agriculture whereas rain-fed agriculture and small exploitations remain the majority. They favor some territories and some social groups to build a specific bio-physical and socio-political reality. Finally, this participates to the construction of a governmental entity "above the ground". All these processes may predict important changes of social organizations and water resources.