Article 40: an Israeli Retrospective/ Dorit Kerret
Article 40 of the interim peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians established, inter alia a Joint Water Commission as a framework for cooperation. This chapter considers the perspective of Israeli experts who were part of the JWC and their perception of the strengths and weaknesses of associated cooperative efforts. Looking back fifteen years later there is a general consensus that the JWC successfully surmounted many political and other obstacles. The experience under the Interim Agreement involving water governance suggests that when good will exists, true cooperation is possible. To some extent, the resulting cooperation was also the result of the unique relationships that were built between human beings that spent a significant amount of time with each other in the negotiations towards the agreement and during its implementation. In several instances the cooperation proved financially worth while as both sides achieved more donations when their requests were uniform and coordinated. However, when both sides face great deficiencies (such as the case of sewage treatment facilities) significant problems arose in implementation that will need to be amended in a final agreement.
The Oslo II Accords in Retrospect: Implementation of the Water Provisions in the Israeli and Palestinian Interim Peace Agreements/ Anan Jayousi
Article 40 of the Oslo II agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians forms the normative basis for cooperation in the water and sewage sector during the interim period as identified in the agreement for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has indeed produced several important declarations. For example, Israel has recognized the Palestinian water rights in the West Bank, both sides recognized the necessity of developing additional water for various uses and both agreed to coordinate the management of water and sewage resources and systems. And yet, the Palestinians tend to be disappointed in the level of implementation and the actual impact of the agreement. In this section we will highlight the main issues addressed through a brief review of the expectations of the Palestinian side versus what had actually happened on the ground.