Politiques de l’eau dans la construction d’un État-nation palestinien. Le cas du camp de réfugiés de Deisha et du district de Bethléem (West Bank)

Abstract

This ethnographic research investigates the structural and administrative conditions of domestic water control and supply in the Dheisha refugee camp, compared to the surrounding Bethlehem district (West Bank). It analyzes the vertical and horizontal social relations occurring daily among the refugee community in satisfying their need for domestic water. I will show the social changes that the new Palestinian National Authority’s organization of domestic water supply has engendered and how the present situation is locally perceived by refugees and citizens of the West Bank. Water emerged as medium of the local and regional political relations in the negotiation of different forms of identification and differentiation in the Palestinian society of the West Bank, which is not at all homogeneous but rich in visions of « others » that are in conflict, collaborate or simply co-exist.