The Politics of Unilateral Environmentalism: Wastewater Treatment along the Israeli-Palestinian Border

While there are many studies that acknowledge the importance of international institutions to govern physical variability, coping with political variability has to date not been sufficiently analyzed. Such attention is warranted because many environmental services are more vulnerable to political and economic variability than to physical variability. This paper examines governance structures and policies designed to respond to asymmetrical interests aggravated by political variability. As a case study, it scrutinises the strategies Israel has adapted to undertake river rehabilitation in response to continued runoff of wastewater from Palestinian territories during periods of political turmoil. The findings show that when political changes are abrupt the foundations for employing cooperative solutions are undermined. In the case of Israel, this has led the government to adopt a position of unilateral environmentalism. Such a policy has allowed Israel to initiate restoration of its groundwater and rivers and insulate itself from future political changes that might impinge on river rehabilitation efforts. Yet, while safeguarding the country's political and environmental interests, unilateral environmentalism has cumulative spatial implications that entail inevitable risks.