2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Dryland ecosystems of the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa face a unique set of water and energy management challenges. “Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation policies can all undermine the productivity of the land.” (UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), cited in Tal and Cohen, 2007.)   This paper will examine economic, political and environmental implications of water conflicts in Israel / Palestine. “Israel, for example, has been relatively aggressive in regulating land use activities to prevent desertification, but does so through a labyrinthine series of subject-specific statutes and secondary regulations. Strategies to combat desertification and erosion rely on statutes from the colonial period of the British Mandate Government, which ruled from 1918-1948."   (Tal and Cohen, 2007).   I will assess competing narratives in Israel and Arab Palestine concerning the management of water resources, and impact of urbanization, population growth and climate change on water scarcity.  This study will be based on review of primary and secondary source materials and interviews with Israeli and Palestinian researchers.  The results of this study will inform field research to be conducted in Israel and the West Bank during a planned Spring 2019 fellowship leave.