Sea, Sun, and Peace?
Publisher: Wilson Quarterly
Author(s): Naomi Zeveloff
Date: 2019
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Cooperation, Land, Renewable Resources
Countries: Israel, Jordan, Palestine
In the Middle East, water has been a source of conflict since ancient times. In the Book of Chronicles, King Hezekiah of Judah stops the flow of a spring and a brook outside Jerusalem to prevent invading Assyrian forces from using them. Discord over water in the region has not ceased in modern times. In 1948, Arab militias cut off water to Jewish areas during the siege of Jerusalem. Threats to water were also a prologue to the Six-Day War in 1967. And continued tensions over this essential resource remain a powerful barrier to peace. But what if water could be removed as a regional source of conflict by harnessing resources that exist in abundance in the Middle East—seawater and sunshine? This vision animates Gidon Bromberg, an Israeli environmentalist who co-founded EcoPeace Middle East—a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian group—in 1994. Among its activities, EcoPeace advocates for a new plan it calls the “Water Energy Nexus.” Israel and the Palestinians would provide desalinated water to Jordan, and receive renewable energy from Jordan in return.