Water Culture in Israel and Palestine / Clive Lipchin and Ziad Abdeen
Historically, the arid conditions of the Israel and Palestine countries have affected the two societies and their outlooks from religious rituals to the type and form of agriculture. Indeed, water continues to inform local Palestinian and Israeli cultures and this will probably not change in the immediate future. Moreover, the hydrological scarcity in the region is increasing year by year due to persistent population growth, over-exploitation, and pollution of existing resources. This pair of chapter offers insights into the culture of water for Israelis and Palestinians. For a final agreement to be sustainable, it is important that it enjoy broad popular support. Hence, it is important to explore how Israelis and Palestinians think about water and its relationship to the larger issues of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The chapter also offers an opportunity to present how a shared water culture might emerge from the present conflict that seeks to attain sustainable management of common water resources, rather than two competing separate cultures.
Israeli and Palestinian Water Resources – an Introduction / Amjad Aliewi and Alon Tal
While Israeli and Palestinian management of water resources can constitute a politically charged issue, there are some objective facts about which the sides generally agree. A brief overview of the water resources available to each side and the major environmental threats facing them offers an important foundation for any analysis about the full range of transboundary water issues considered in this book. This chapter offers a brief description of the hydrological reality shared by Israelis and Palestinians. It will attempt to characterize the basic quantities and qualities of water resources, past, present and future plans to develop resources and the competing claims of sovereignty held by each side. This background is important for understanding subsequent chapters. The chapter opens with a description of Israeli water resources, continues with a description of Palestinian water resources and then concludes with a summary of the areas of agreement and disagreement between the two sides.
