Would the United States Come to Nazareth’s Aid? Local and International Contests over the City’s Water

Abstract

This article explores the appeals for aid made by Nazareth’s inhabitants to the US Point Four Program (the predecessor to today’s USAID) to implement a water infrastructure project during the early 1950s. It argues that this was one of several attempts by Palestinians to push back against their exclusion and marginalization by the nascent Israeli state and to retain some measure of autonomy in local governance. Focusing on this settler-colonial setting, and on the role of nonstate actors in what became a protracted and complex conflict, I show how water rights and resource management were embroiled in the political contests that shaped the process of decolonization, at both local and international levels.