المياه كأحد المرتكزات الاقتصادية و السياسية في السياسة الإسرائيلية

Abstract EN

Israel attaches great importance to water resources in the west bank.

according to some sources, it has given priority to its needs at the expense of the inherent rights of the Palestinian people to its waters.

this is because of two factors : (i) a considerable and increasing percentage of the water consumed by Israel before and after June 1967 is originating in the west bank ; (ii) Israel’s pursuit of a very intensive Jewish settlement policy in the west bank and the Gaza strip.

to control water resources in these two areas, these resources have, since June 1967, been placed under the responsibility of the department for water allocation and certification of Israeli water commission.

by drilling artesian wells within the pre-June 1967 borders, Israel has been pumping and siphoning off underground waters of the west bank.

before 1967, Israel had been pumping away of the west bank's total water supply some 500 million cubic metres annually by means of artesian wells drilled in Israel.

this constituted approximately one-third of Israel’s annual water consumption before 1967 and it constituted five-sixths of the West bank waters.

this explains the considerable importance the Israeli government attaches to control of the aquifer along the western slopes of the west bank.

any faster pumping would lower the water table below sea level, making the water highly saline and unsuitable for human use.

since June 1967, Israel has pursued an intensive settlement policy in the west bank and the Gaza strip ; within this policy many Jewish settlements, mainly agricultural, have been established.

hence, Israel’s political position towards the political future of the West bank and Gaza strip, its rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state on them, and its insistence on maintaining it, appear to be partly due to the water factor in these Palestinian territories, where water resources in the West bank and Gaza strip play an important role in shaping Israel’s concept of autonomy for these areas, and it seems difficult for Israel to accept a political settlement in the West bank and Gaza strip leading to its abandonment of control of water resources in these areas.

on the other hand, the political question that will have to be addressed in both the government and in the autonomy, negotiations is : how will Israeli control of drilling continue ? will an agreement be reached on this subject with the self-rule administration, or should Israel maintain its physical control over the water resources in its hands, which also require a special military apparatus.

“Israeli water experts have recently briefed senior political circles on the question of the possibility that in the framework of the administrative autonomy in the West bank, Israel would lose control over essential water resources.

in the view of these circles it is inconceivable that Israel will not include in its autonomy plan articles that will prevent the development of a situation in which Israel loses the ability to secure itself against the possibility that local elements assisted by foreign finance pump water through deep drilling from the underground aquifer in West Samaria which supplies approximately one-third of Israel’s water consumption, and which is fed by water that originates in the watershed of the Samaria mountains”.