Hydrostrategic Decisionmaking and the Arab ... - Yale University

WOLF 263Israel-Jordan Treaty of PeaceIsrael and Jordan have had probably the warmest relations of anytwo states legally at war. Communication between the two has takenplace since the creation of each, ameliorating conflict and facilitatingconflict resolution on a variety of subjects, including water. As notedabove, the so-called “Picnic Table Talks” on allocations of theYarmuk have taken place since the 1950s and negotiations formulatingprinciples for water-sharing projects and allocations have occurredin conjunction with, and parallel to, both the bilateral andmultilateral peace negotiations. 20 These principles were formalizedon October 26, 1994, when Israel and Jordan signed a treaty ofpeace, ending more than four decades of a legal, when not actual,state of war.For the first time since the states came into being, the treatylegally defines mutually recognized water allocations. Acknowledgingthat “water issues along their entire boundary must be dealt within their totality,” the treaty spells out allocations for both theYarmuk and Jordan Rivers and Arava/Araba groundwater, and callsfor joint efforts to prevent water pollution. Also, “[recognizing] thattheir water resources are not sufficient to meet their needs,” thetreaty calls for ways of alleviating the water shortage through cooperativeprojects, both regional and international.The peace treaty also makes some minor boundary modifications.As noted above, the Israel-Jordan boundary was delineated byGreat Britain in 1922 and followed the center of the Yarmuk andJordan Rivers, the Dead Sea, and Wadi Araba. In the late 1960s and1970s, Israel had occasionally made minor modifications in theboundary south of the Dead Sea to make specific sections moresecure from infiltrators. They had also done so on occasion to reachsites from which small wells might better be developed. In the lastsixteen years, no modifications were made except on the rare occasionthat one of these local wells ran dry and had to be re-dug. All ofthese territorial modifications were reversed and all affected landwas returned to Jordan as a consequence of the peace treaty, althoughIsrael retains rights to the water which comes from thesewells. Moreover, a small enclave of Jordanian territory in the Aravais being leased back to Israel in 25 year increments.One other area was similarly affected. In 1926, a Jewish entrepreneurnamed Pinhas Rutenberg was granted a 70 year concession forhydropower generation at the confluence of the Yarmuk and JordanRivers on land leased by TransJordan. The dam he built for thatpurpose was destroyed in the fighting of 1948 and the 1949 ArmisticeLine left a small portion of Jordan under Israeli control. Thisland was farmed by the kibbutz Ashdot Ya’akov, which was estab-20For more details on the bilateral andmultilateral talks on water, see Wolf(1995b).YALE F&ES BULLETIN