The Jordan Basin: Evolution of the Rules

Abstract

The Jordan River basin extends from the slopes of Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea. Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinians, and Syria are riparian to the Jordan River or its tributaries. Most plans for the basin waters were based on treating the basin as an integral whole, although no basin-wide agreement has been reached. The determination of political borders sometimes has reflected water issues. Israel and Jordan have an agreement reflecting the allocations of the Johnston Plan. Israel and the Palestinians have an interim agreement on water. The riparians have not denied the relevance of customary international law, but their agreements have not explicitly referred to the customary rules. The Jordan basin is part of the Dead Sea-Red Sea Rift, which is a part of the Syrian-African Transform System. It extends from the southern slope of Mount Herman (2,800 m) in the north to the Dead Sea (�424 m) in the south, and includes the watershed of the Naftali, upper Galilee, lower Galilee, Yissachar, Gilboa Hills, and the Samarian and Judean mountains in the west, and of the Golan, Hauran, Gilead (Jebel Ajlun), and Moab mountains in the east, covering 18,300 km 2 (Lowi 1993: 20). Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian area, and Syria are riparian to its waters. These waters are critical for Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians, and less so for Lebanon and Syria (Lowi 1993: 108). The River Jordan rises from Mount Hermon, flows over 228 km into Lake Tiberias (known also as Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret), and from there down into the Dead Sea. Although it is the region's principal river, its flow is relatively small: 'less than three percent of the Tigris …