Developing Water and Marginalising Israel/Palestinian Peace: A Critical Examination of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Feasibility Study Process

Abstract

Efforts to ‘save’ the Dead Sea have been globalised through the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal feasibility study process facilitated by the World Bank. In claiming a ‘peace dividend’ as one ‘intangible benefit’ of programme development and problem solving, the canal initiative has established the relevance of peace discourse as a basis for critiquing the process. This article critically examines phase one of the feasibility study process and its implications for regional peacebuilding in the light of a claimed ‘peace dividend’, assessing the practices of regional integration, knowledge construction and stakeholder participation.¹

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