Dependence, Independence and Interdependence in the Palestinian Water Sector

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to analyze current and potential future Palestinian water governance in relation to the overall workshop series theme: ‘The Political Economy of Dependence and Independence’. In doing this, however, we need from the outset to go beyond this formulation, in two respects. First, we need to add a third term in addition to ‘dependence’ and ‘independence,’ since these two terms do not exhaust all possible types of relations between Palestine and the outside world, either in the water sector or in relation to various other issues. I propose this added term to be ‘interdependence’. And second, we need to recognize that ‘political economy’ involves not just the analysis of external relations between Palestine and this outside world – relations that can variously be characterized as ‘dependence’, ‘independence’ or ‘interdependence’ – but also the analysis of internal relations within Palestinian society, whether these be relations between regions, classes, parties, religions, genders, and so forth.