The Impact of Military Orders on the Palestinians’ Right to Water Access : a content analysis of IDF’s Military Orders regarding water in light of IHL and ICCPR Article 26

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to explore what impacts the IDF’s Military Orders regarding water have on Palestinians in the West Bank, taking international humanitarian law (IHL) and International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) into consideration. Thus, to discover whether or not Israel’s actions are compatible with IHL and treats everyone equal before the law, as stated in ICCPR Article 26, both quantitative and qualitative content analysis is applied to the Military Orders in question. The theory of the thesis has origins in Hannah Arendt’s theory “right to have a right” and is further developed through Edward Said’s “Orientalism” and the concept of Rule of Law. This gives an exhaustive understanding of how essential it is to have an authority with enough power to influence the fulfillment of human rights. Thereby, two main conclusions are made: Firstly, the language of the Military Orders ignores the Palestinians’ right to water access and mainly focuses on ascribing the IDF military commander all-encompassing power. The way the language is put in the Military Orders confirms earlier scholars’ studies that there is a great asymmetrical power discourse in this conflict. Additionally, this asymmetrical power discourse often results in violation of the Palestinians’ right to water access. Secondly, the meaning of citizenship in a state with enough power to influence becomes visible since the violation of Palestinians’ right to water access is a consequence of the limited power of the Palestinian Authority.