CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 83

SHOGHIK TADEVOSYAN
Middle East, where 5% of the world’s population lives and has less than
1% of the water resources. 1
The water dispute between Israel and Palestine is not merely an
environmental conflict. From the beginning, the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict was mainly over the two different nations’ aspirations for self-
determination and territorial sovereignty over the same area. Gradually,
the dispute began incorporating other spectra as well. Thus, it is a many-
fold dispute and is intertwined with history, ideological beliefs,
topographic differences, as well as asymmetrical power relationships
between them. First, some of the turning points connected with the
problem of water will be chronologically presented in this article for a
more comprehensive and profound understanding of the conflict. Then,
water-related issues both considering regional circumstances and specific
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be discussed.
As mentioned above, this article seeks to reveal the role and
importance of water in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to find an
explanation for Israel’s deliberate actions. Thus, after discussing the
literature and the current main theories concerning the water issue in
Israeli-Palestinian relations, the concept of hydro-hegemony will be
debunked, as many scholars have determined that the reason for these
actions is nothing more than an uneven distribution of power.
Historical Background
The Era of Zionist Aspirations and the Evolution of the Israeli-
Palestinian Conflict
For decades, Arabs and Jews have struggled to live and control the
area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. At the end of
the 19th century, modern political Zionism emerged. In the core of
Zionist ideology, Palestine was viewed as a territory reserved for Jews, ‘a
land without people for a people without land’. 2 This was the main reason
that after the emergence of political Zionism, illegal large-scale
immigration waves (aliyahs) to Palestine began with great speed.
Irrigation was necessary for Jews to fertilize the Palestinian lands.
It was also important for other countries in the region. Hence, the

1 Oded
Eran, INSS, Gidon Bromberg and Giulia Giordano, Israeli Water Diplomacy and
National Security Concerns, (Tel Aviv: EcoPeace Middle East, 2018): 5,
http://ecopeaceme.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Water_Diplomacy.pdf (accessed May
15, 2019).
2 Alan George, ““Making the Desert Bloom”: A Myth Examined,” Journal of Palestine
Studies 8, no. 2 (1979): 88.
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