Citation

Bromberg G. World Watch 2004; 17(4): 24-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Worldwatch Institute)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Headlines in the Western press depict a seemingly hopeless cycle of violence in the Israeli-Palestine sector of the Middle East. An Israeli warplane destroys the home of a militant Palestinian. A retaliatory suicide bomber blows up an Israeli bus. In both instances, innocent people die and the anger escalates. Missing from the media coverage is any clear sense of what is going on in the day-to-day relationship between the two countries other than the sporadic violent exchanges. Between the missiles and bombs, people are-under great duress, and at great risk-continuing to trade services and goods, drive crossborder trucks, commute through checkpoints to their jobs or schools-and manage a range of transboundary natural resources that are essential to the livelihoods of all the peoples in the region. There's a theory gaining adherents among some of the more thoughtful observers of this troubled land, that it is in those essential day-to-day activities that the real chance for achieving peace can be found. In the common resources essential to all life, and especially in fresh water, the conflicting cultures share a universal interest. Water is extremely scarce in this region and getting scarcer. Human desperation is never greater than when water is no longer in reach. If the people of this region can find viable ways of cooperating in the management of this most valuable of all resources, there's no other challenge they can't meet. A leading proponent of this theory is the grassroots group Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), an international NGO that has recently brought new attention to one of history's most storied bodies of water-the Dead Sea. In short, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan all need to coordinate their management of humanity's most valuable natural resource in ways that address not only their own national needs but the competing needs of farmers and city-dwellers, tourism and mining, and the visitors to Muslim, Jewish, and Christian holy sites. Given the stalling of the Bush-Sharon "Road Map" for Israeli-Palestinian peace, that might seem like day-dreaming. But in fact, some of the envisioned Dead Sea cooperation is already happening, in ways that aren't being seen in other areas of conflict. Some of this laying of at least the groundwork for a cooperative stabilization has to do with the immediacy of water-the fact that neither humans nor birds can live for more than a few days without it, and cannot wait through years of political posturing. In this sense, water is just the leading edge of the Earth's resources overall, and the dry Middle East is just one of the first regions being forced to decide between a higher level of cooperation than in the past, and ever-larger repeats of the civilizational catastrophes of the past.

Language: en

Keywords

Palestine; Israel; Middle East; Asia; conflict management; Eurasia; transboundary cooperation; water management; water resource