Water Nakba in Palestine: Sustainable Development Goal 6 versus Israeli hydro-hegemony

This Viewpoint article argues that Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, cannot be achieved for the Palestinian people under the current political situation of Israeli occupation. Through the practice of hydro-hegemony, Israel controls all water resources in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, thus denying water sovereignty to the Palestinians. This is demonstrated through three case studies: The Jordan Valley; the West Bank settlements; and Gaza. The politics of water in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory is best understood as part of the dynamics of settler colonialism, in which ethnic cleansing is achieved through the dispossession of essential resources. The authors discuss what role the international scientific community can play in supporting Palestinian water sovereignty and therefore SDG 6.