In Israel and Palestine, a natural water scarcity is exacerbated by the
overall political conflict. On the one hand, the regional climate is arid to
semi-arid, resulting in frequent droughts. Inefficient water utilisation,
growing population numbers as well as continuing economic development and
urbanisation further increase water needs and amplify existing scarcity. On
the other hand, two of the river Jordan’s headwaters, Banias and Hasbani, rise
outside of Israel’s internationally recognised borders. The Palestinians have
no access whatsoever to the river Jordan, limited access to the ground water
resources and are widely dependent on Israeli allocations. Since 1967, the
bulk of the natural water resources are under Israeli control. As a result of
these specific conditions, water scarcity is perceived as a cause for
(violent) conflict in both the Israeli and the Palestinian society. This
manifests in conflictive discourse structures, like the discursive
securitization of water scarcity for varying referential objects. Water is
perceived and categorized differently by the two conflicting parties: While
Palestinians regard the natural water resources as sufficient in principle and
the existing scarcity as entirely politically induced, the Israelis perceive
the natural water resources as absolutely scarce while receiving major
desecuritization impulses from the possibility of desalination. On both sides,
the dominant discourse structures underscore the conflictive issues regarding
the distribution of water between Israelis and Palestinians, thus making
communication, let alone negotiation, downright impossible. It is exclusively
in the respective (minor) counter discourses that possible starting points for
dialogue and conflict resolution are visible. With communication – verbal and
non-verbal, direct and indirect – at the bottom of every conflict, the reality
of Israeli-Palestinian water discourse needs to be taken into account with
regard to conflict resolution approaches in the region. This has not, however,
been taken into account by conflict resolution practitioners as yet
