International water law regulates the utilisation of shared watercourses between states; it contains rules which define permissive and prohibited modes of watercourse utilisation and factors for determining water allocations between riparian states. In that sense, it assumes equal standing for the actors involved in the negotiation and arrangement over water resources. In the Oslo accords, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to employ the core principles of IWL in their respective utilisation of shared water resources, in particular, over the shared water resources in the West Bank: the principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation of watercourses, the principle of no significant harm and the duty of co-operation. This presentation examines these three principles in the Israel-OPT context and addresses in particular the questions of ‘to what extent these principles have they been applied. It also reflects on possible ways on how Israel and the OPT could move forward to try to address its water resources problems

Conference Title

Implementing International Water Law: Lessons from the Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territory

Conference Country

Netherlands

Conference Date

May 28, 2019 - May 29, 2019

Conference Sponsor

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, The Hague, Netherlands

Additional Info

Conference Website