Author: Alatout, Samer

Source: Israel Studies Forum, Volume 23, Number 1, Summer 2008 , pp. 40-65(26)

Abstract:

Three elements dominated scholarship on Israeli water politics and policymaking in the 1950s: (1) the state is often taken to be a fully established actor since its inception in 1948; (2) Israeli water policymaking was dominated by geopolitical and regional concerns over security and access to shared water resources; (3) water was, and continues to be, a scarce resource. This article argues that these elements result in the depoliticization of Israeli water policies and offers three counterarguments. First, the totality of any state is an ever-illusive construct. Second, Israeli water politics had an internal dimension that has to be investigated in its own right. Third, scarcity did not acquire the status of a "fact" until the mid-1950s. In fact, the struggle over the notions of water abundance and scarcity was an essential part of working through the political conflicts over the meaning of Jewish subjectivity, the boundaries of the state, and its right to intervene in civil society.

Keywords: ENVIRONMENT; ISRAEL; PALESTINE; POLICYMAKING; SCIENCE STUDIES; STATE THEORY; WATER

DOI: 10.3167/isf.2008.230103

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