BEIRUT: Israel is voicing renewed concern about the potential
diversion of water from the Hasbani River in south Lebanon, echoing similar
concerns a decade ago that led to an unnecessary escalation of tensions between
the two countries.
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post Monday, Israeli
officials are worried at the expanding size of a tourist resort built on the
western bank of the Hasbani, 1.6 kilometers upstream from where the river flows
into Israel. The Hasbani is one of three tributaries of the River Jordan which
runs into the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s largest reserve of fresh water.
The Blue Line follows the center of the Hasbani River for a
distance of 3.5 kilometers before veering to the northeast bisecting the
Israeli-occupied village of Ghajar.
The tourist resort is owned by Khalil Abdullah, a resident of
Khiam who lived for 40 years in the Ivory Coast before returning to Lebanon a
few years ago. He began building his resort in early 2010, lending it an
African theme with thatched roofs and adobe-walled huts.
He had plans to build a hotel and conference center which he
hoped could one day host regional peace talks given its fitting location on the
trilateral border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria. Even at that early stage
in the project’s development, the Israelis on the eastern bank were keeping an
eye on the construction activities, routinely snapping photographs, and,
according to Abdullah, even infiltrating across the river one night to sabotage
his excavator.
“It has our attention and we are keeping a close eye on what is
happening there,” an anonymous Israeli officer told the Jerusalem Post. “Our
concerns range from the diversion of water to the possibility that the tourism
center will be used as a cover to launch attacks against Israel.”
Another officer warned that it could become a “strategic
problem.”
For observers of developments in south Lebanon, this all sounds
familiar.
Between 2001-2002, Israeli threats and warnings over minor
Lebanese water diversion schemes on the Hasbani created a needless series of
crises.
In March 2001, the Council of the South began building a small
pumping station beside the Wazzani springs on the Hasbani River to provide
drinking water for a couple of local villages. In the dry summer months, the
Wazzani springs – which lie opposite Ghajar – are the only source of water for
the Hasbani River. Israel immediately warned that the pumping operation could
spark a war. But UNIFIL stepped in to remind Israel that it had been informed
of the project a month earlier and that the pipe in question was only 10
centimeters in diameter.
Lebanon is entitled under international law to draw some of the
waters of the Hasbani River for its own uses. In the 1950s, the so-called
Johnson Plan – an arrangement to share the waters of the Jordan River
(including the Hasbani) between Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan – granted the
Lebanese an annual allowance of 35 million cubic meters.
A few months later, Hussein Abdullah, a local landowner, roiled
the waters when he installed a 15 centimeter-diameter pipe to irrigate some
farmland. The Israelis cried foul again.
In the summer of 2002, the Council of the South expanded its
pumping operation to provide drinking water for some 12 villages in the south.
Ariel Sharon, the then Israeli prime minister, declared the scheme a “casus
belli,” or case for war, and threatened to bomb the pumping station. Sayyed
Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, cautioned that Israel would
fall into an “unrelenting death mill” if it proceeded with plans to attack the
Wazzani pump.
Yet, even this enlarged project, which utilized a pipe with a
diameter of 40 centimeters, would only draw around 3.5 mcm a year, a mere 10
percent of Lebanon’s total allocation under the Johnson Plan.
Ultimately, Israel had no choice but to accept Lebanon’s right
to pump some of the water. Israel’s bluster turned what should have been a
minor infrastructure project into a national celebration when it was formally
inaugurated in September 2002, with then President Emile Lahoud opening the
spigot amid clouds of balloons released into the air and cheering crowds.
Neither Hezbollah nor Israel has much appetite for renewed
confrontations for now and it is unlikely that there will be an escalation in
tensions similar to a decade ago. But Israel’s concerns do have some
precedence.
In 1965, work began on an Arab League plan to divert the Hasbani
away from Israel in response to Israel channeling water from the Sea of Galilee
to irrigate the Negev Desert. Israel bombed the diversion works, igniting
cross-border clashes with Syria indirectly leading to the June 1967 war.
The real
purpose of Israel’s overstated threats is likely intended to convey the message
that if the Israelis are getting this upset over minor water pumping schemes or
harmless tourism projects, then imagine its reaction to a genuine water diversion
scheme along the Hasbani.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-10/179981-water-war-reignites-between-israel-and-lebanon-over-hasbani.ashx#axzz20Cux6juG
