PALESTINIAN WATER RIGHTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL WATER LAW
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Date
2022-05-09
Authors
Al-Alawneh, Mohammad
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
جامعة النجاح الوطنية
Abstract
Palestine suffered from several occupations because of its lands and location in the middle of the Middle East. where it connects Asia, Europe, and Africa by its lands and it's the Mediterranean Sea. From 1917, Palestine suffered from several wars from the British army, which ended its mandate in 1948 by giving the Israeli Army Belfour declaration.
Water issue between Palestinian and Israeli Occupation was one of the most important issues where conflict exists until these days. After the 1967 war, the Israeli occupation controlled all water resources available in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and start exploiting while preventing Palestinians from developing any additional resources. Article 40 in the Oslo II agreement talks about water share quantities for each country for the interim period of five years. It should be mentioned that the quantities mentioned are not equitable for any time after the year 1999 because it is considered expired accords. So, the Helsinki principles adapted in 1966, mentioned equitable utilization of the waters of an international drainage basin. Article V mentioned eleven factors to be considered while determining the equitable share from shared international watercourses of each riparian state.
Questionnaire distributed to Palestinian water experts to give marks for Helsinki factors according to their importance and multiple criteria decision analysis applied as a tool of Judgment between riparian countries. The final results showed that the percentage of water resources that should be allocated to the State of Palestine is about 56% from groundwater resources which equals 642.31 Mcm/Yr, where the present utilization percentage is less than 15%. For Jordan Rivier Basin the equitable utilization is 20.86% which equals 292.04 Mcm/Yr whereas the Present utilization is 0% from it.
Description
Palestine suffered from several occupations because of its lands and location in the middle of the Middle East. where it connects Asia, Europe, and Africa by its lands and it's the Mediterranean Sea. From 1917, Palestine suffered from several wars from the British army, which ended its mandate in 1948 by giving the Israeli Army Belfour declaration.
Water issue between Palestinian and Israeli Occupation was one of the most important issues where conflict exists until these days. After the 1967 war, the Israeli occupation controlled all water resources available in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and start exploiting while preventing Palestinians from developing any additional resources. Article 40 in the Oslo II agreement talks about water share quantities for each country for the interim period of five years. It should be mentioned that the quantities mentioned are not equitable for any time after the year 1999 because it is considered expired accords. So, the Helsinki principles adapted in 1966, mentioned equitable utilization of the waters of an international drainage basin. Article V mentioned eleven factors to be considered while determining the equitable share from shared international watercourses of each riparian state.
Questionnaire distributed to Palestinian water experts to give marks for Helsinki factors according to their importance and multiple criteria decision analysis applied as a tool of Judgment between riparian countries. The final results showed that the percentage of water resources that should be allocated to the State of Palestine is about 56% from groundwater resources which equals 642.31 Mcm/Yr, where the present utilization percentage is less than 15%. For Jordan Rivier Basin the equitable utilization is 20.86% which equals 292.04 Mcm/Yr whereas the Present utilization is 0% from it.
Keywords
Helsinki Rules, riparian countries, international watercourses, groundwater aquifers, Jordan River, equitable share, conflict, and utilization.