Water History Conference Delft 2010: "The history of water in Israel/Palestine in the last 100 years: a beginning" successfully held

UNESCO-IHP and the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization (IPSO) successfully organized on 17 June the double session "The history of water in Israel/Palestine in the last 100 years: a beginning", which was held at the Water History Conference 2010. More than 30 international scholars attended the two sessions. Palestinian and Israeli researchers from the University of Haifa, Al-Quds University, Hebrew University and Birzeit University presented the intermediate research results of the joint UNESCO and IPSO project "Harnessing History to Understand the Current Israeli-Arab Water Landscape". They presented interdisciplinary topics that ranged from the development of water laws in Mandate Palestine, the history of the planning of major water infrastructure in the region to case studies on the landscape transformation through water resources development and usage changes and discussed them with the academic public. The positive feedback of the peers made it clear that this joint Israeli-Palestinian research project is indeed considered as an important and groundbreaking initiative in a field that has hitherto received little academic attention. The scholars also suggested to take the project further than the current phase until December 2010 allows, in terms of depth of the studies, the researched fields and the access and exploitation of source materials.

The project "Harnessing History" conducts historical research to better understand the regional development of major water projects, water laws, and of the changes in the landscapes of Israel/Palestine due to irrigation. The project is financed by Funds-in-Trust of the Government of Italy, the double session also received the support of UNESCO-IHP. "Harnessing History" constitutes a contribution to the UNESCO projects From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential, an initiative for the prevention and resolution of water-related conflicts, and to the forthcoming multi-volume book series History of Water and Civilization.