Bridge building

While I was in Israel and Palestine earlier in the year, I spent time with an amazing Palestinian couple in East Jerusalem, Fadia Daibes-Murad and her husband, Said. Fadia is an expert on sharing water resources in the region and her partner is a well-known musician who works to bring understanding between the various religious and cultural differences in Palestine.

Fadia’s new book is out next month, A New Legal Framework for Managing the World’s Shared Groundwaters:

“What are the rules of international water law that govern the use of the transboundary aquifers shared by Palestine and Israel? This book addresses this issue through an interdisciplinary approach, identifying first the special problems tied to the management of shared groundwater, and next critically analysing the applicable rules of international law.”

She told me about the detrimental effects of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian water system, settlers constantly destroying the required infrastructure and the indifference of Israeli authorities.

It is yet another area that needs to be resolved and the Gaza withdrawal contributes nothing to this process.