War over Water

The "War over Water" (Hebrew: המלחמה על המים, HaMilhama al HaMaim), also the Battle over Water (Hebrew: הקרב על המים, HaKrav al HaMaim), refers to a series of confrontations between Israel and its Arab neighbors from November 1964 to May 1967 over control of available water sources in the Jordan River drainage basin.

History

The 1949 Armistice Agreements which followed the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, created three Demilitarized zones on the Israel-Syria border. The southernmost, and also the largest of stretched from the south-eastern part of the Sea of Galilee eastwards to the Yarmuk River where the borders of Israel, Jordan and Syria converged.^[1] The issue of sharing the waters of the Jordan–Yarmuk system between Israel, Syria and Jordan turned out to be a major problem.^[2]

Although small scale water-related skirmishes had occurred following the 1949 agreements, the major escalation took place in 1964, following Israel's completion of its National Water Carrier Project, which siphoned water from the Sea of Galilee. Arab states regarded the Israeli project as a unilateral usage of water resources outside the river basin; in response they attempted to finance and build the joint Syrian-Lebanese Headwater Diversion Plan, which would have diverted some water from flowing into Israel, particularly into the Sea of Galilee, where the National Water Carrier starts. The headwaters diversion would have directed the waters of the Banias stream into a dam at Mukhaiba for Syrian and Jordanian use, and divert the waters of the Hasbani into the Litani River for Lebanese use. The diversion works would have reduced the installed capacity of the National Water Carrier by 35%, and Israel's overall water supply by about 11%.^[3] Israel declared it would regard such a project as an infringement of its sovereign rights.

In November, when activities for the Arab diversion project started, the Israel Defense Forces launched repeated military strikes against the diversion works, which led to a prolonged chain of border clashes^[4]. The Arab countries eventually abandoned their project. Control of water resources and Israeli military attacks regarding the diversion effort are considered among the major factors which led to the Six-Day War in June 1967.

See also

• Water politics in the Middle East
• Headwater Diversion Plan (Jordan River)

References

Further reading

• Ameri, Hussein A. (Dec., 2002). "Water War in the Middle East: a Looming Threat". The Geographical Journal 168 (4): 313–323. doi:10.1111/j.0016-7398.2002.00058.x. 
• Cooley, John, K. (Spring, 1984). "The War over Water". Foreign Policy 54: 3–26. 
• Gat, Moshe (Oct., 2004). "The Use of Airpower and its Effects on the Outbreak of the Six Day War". The Journal of Military History 68 (4): 1187–1215. doi:10.1353/jmh.2004.0194. 
• Gleick, Peter, H. (Summer, 1993). "Water and Conflict: Fresh Water Resources and International Security". International Security (The MIT Press) 18 (1): 79–112. doi:10.2307/2539033. JSTOR 2539033. 
• Haddadin, Munther J. (Dec., 2002). "Water in the Middle East Peace Process". The Geographical Journal 168 (4): 324–340. doi:10.1111/j.0016-7398.2002.00059.x. 
• Rook, Robert E. (Winter, 2000). "An American in Palestine: Elwood Mead and Zionist Water Resource Planning, 1923-1936". Arab Studies Quarterly 22 (1): 71–90. http://web.macam.ac.il/~arnon/Int-ME/water/AN%20AMERICAN%20IN%20PALESTINE.htm.