Water, Geopolitics and State Building: The Case of Israel

Abstract

The need to control and disperse water resources has been a central facet in the development of the territorial, demographic and economic bases of the State of Israel. During the pre-state period and the early years of Israel's existence, two major mutually interdependent processes were at work that would have a critical impact on Israel's future. The first process was geopolitical, and had to do with the need to provide security for the fledgling state from external threats. This included not only threats to Israel's existence, but also threats to the economic well-being of its population and its capacity for future growth through the absorption of large segments of the Jewish Diaspora. Water issues were central to Israel's geopolitical considerations, and the earlier British and Zionist desire to control the maximum number of possible water sources ultimately resulted in the demarcation of what would, in 1948, become Israel's northern and northeastern borders. The northeastern border would later be revised through military action in 1967 brought on, in part, as a result of threats to Israel's water supply. Hence the need to secure water resources played a crucial role in Israel's geopolitical calculus with respect to its border with Syria. The second process was that of state and society building. Here too, water was critical since the absorption of Jewish immigration and the creation of a Jewish demographic presence in as much of Palestine as possible was a necessary prerequisite to achieving statehood. And once the state came into being it became necessary to absorb large numbers of immigrants from Europe and the Middle East and to strengthen Israel's demographic presence in the arid southern Negev region. This meant that water would have to be transported southwards in order to make large-scale settlement in that part of the country a reality. Water was also needed to develop Israel's agricultural enterprises which, ideologically and economically, were of crucial importance in the pre-state and early-state period (owing in part to the lack of a significant industrial base). Hence water played a central role in the economic and demographic development