Justice Tourism and the Water Regime in Palestine
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Tourism, Culture & Communication, Vol. 17, pp. 139–158 1098-304X/17 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3727/109830417X14966810027580 Copyright Ó 2017 Cognizant, LLC. E-ISSN 1943-4146 www.cognizantcommunication.com CRITICAL REVIEW TRANSFORMATIONAL HOST COMMUNITIES: JUSTICE TOURISM AND THE WATER REGIME IN PALESTINE RAMI K. ISAAC Academy for Tourism, NHTV, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine In this article, Isaac argues that since 1948, Israel’s control of water resources has been the result of military actions that forced between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians into exile and claimed the most fertile part of the disputed territory for the state. It thereby paved the way for subsequent mili- tary occupation. Isaac maintains that the Israeli occupation has violated the Palestinian right to the equitable and reasonable utilization of shared water resources. In his view, from the end of the 1967 war, Israel initiated its occupation of the territories of Palestine and quickly imposed military order with a view to achieving full control over land and water resources. To Isaac, these military orders served to dissolve the pre-1967 legal systems and which consisted of Ottoman, British, Jordanian (West Bank) and Egyptian (Gaza Strip) laws. This critical review article concentrates on the concept of justice tourism as a response to these assumed Israeli violations of Palestinian rights to equitable and reasonable utilization of shared water resources. The article sheds light on why and how justice tourism conceivably contributes to the Palestine host communities’ transformation and hence to the development of higher level self-consciousness about their rights as “a sovereign nation.” (Abstract by the Reviews Editor) Key words: Palestine; Justice tourism; Water; Transformations; The agora; Ambassador tourism Introduction impacts on the populations; many Palestinians became refugees living in refugee camps (Isaac, The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and 2010a; Salamah, 2006). For the first two and half the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the decades of the Occupation, from 1967 through the Gaza Strip in 1967 (Isaac, 2010a; White, 2010) had first Intifada and until the economic closure following significant political, economic, social, and psychic the Gulf War, Israel’s economic policy towards the Address correspondence to Rami Isaac, NHTV, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected] 139 Delivered by Ingenta to: NHTV Breda University of Professional Education IP: 145.101.161.66 On: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 14:14:13 Article(s) and/or figure(s) cannot be used for resale. Please use proper citation format when citing this article including the DOI, publisher reference, volume number and page location. 140 ISAAC Occupied Territories of Palestine was one of con- nation. A critical review article like this will help trolled development—“asymmetric containment” raise awareness in the international community. [United Nations Conference on Trade and Devel- opment (UNCTAD), 2006]. Israel wanted to incor- Justice Tourism and Individual Transformations porate the territories’ economy into Israel. The Palestinian population thus became one of Israel’s The forces of globalizations with an orientation major agricultural export markets. Restrictions on towards the capitalist form of development have movement, and the Segregation Wall built by Israel led to serious ecological and social consequences on the Palestinian land, means regional tourism can (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2008a). The corporatized form be developed and, in fact, is developing. Justice of tourism is one of those faces of capitalist global- tourism in this context can provide Palestinians with ization that have rendered structural violence leading hope in difficult situations, although the academic to dehumanization and exploitation of indigenous community tends to withdraw from such reflections communities and environmental damage (Sklair, (Isaac, 2013). This critical review article discusses 2002). The rise of “anti-globalization” movements and reflects on the Israeli occupation, checkpoints, has stemmed from the search for an alternative movement restrictions, and control over villages, form of globalization than the current model of land, and the confiscation and destruction of Pal- capitalist globalization (Held, 1991; Klein, 2002; estinian heritage that includes natural and cultural Sklair, 2002). resources (Barnard & Muamer, 2016) and particu- Criticism of capitalist globalization emphasizes larly on the water regime, which is the aim of this the antihumanistic and environmentally damaging critical review. effects that the system imposes on peoples and soci- When the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) eties around the world as marketizations takes hold was established in the wake of the peace-making (Gill, 1995; Sklair, 2002). The process of capitalist efforts, tourism became an important sector of the globalization of tourism can be arrested by alter- economy and a source of income. The establish- native forms of tourism that bring justice through ment of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and social equity and ecological sustainability (Higgins- Antiquities (MOTA) and private sector investments Desbiolles, 2008a; Rogers, 2008). Justice tourism, between 1994 and 2000 led to an economic boom a relatively new and underresearched form of tour- in 2000. After the outbreak of the second Palestin- ism, as part of alternative tourism could (or should) ian uprising (Intifada) in 2000 that deemed tourism provide a singular model of difference, in which it in a new way (Isaac, 2010c) the tourism industry seeks not only to reform the inequities and damages recovered in 2004. of contemporary tourism but also to chart a footpath This article focuses on justice tourism and sheds to a more just global order. In this context, justice light on why and how it contributes to Palestinian tourism could (or should) contribute to fundamental host transformation. It is argued that justice tourism transformations of the contemporary global order, and hope are needed in the region where violence, and particularly in the case of this critical review moral decay, and social destruction are the rule of article on Palestine. day. An example of this destruction is the water Various labels have been attached to new forms regime in Palestine. Justice tourism is introduced of tourism (alternative tourism) that seek to dif- as a moral response to the Israeli violations of Pal- ferentiate themselves from mass tourism: sustain- estinian right to equitable and reasonable utiliza- able (Wheeller, 1993), alternative (Eadington & tion of shared water resources. This critical review Smith, 1992), low-impact (Wearing & Neil, 1999), article introduces the “agora” of Arendt (1963) as soft (Sharpley, 2000), pro-poor (Higgins-Desbiolles, a symbolic space, on which a counterdiscourse 2008a), and justice tourism (Lanfant & Graburn, emerges. Through justice tourism, the Palestinian 1992). As Higgins-Desbiolles stated (2008a), “The host communities can experience transformations definition of and correct terminology for the tour- towards a higher level of personal development and ism alternative are contentious” (p. 346). Alterna- growth, changing life perspective, and higher levels tive tourism is still a vague term that lacks concrete of self-consciousness of their rights as a sovereign definition (Butler, 1992; Pearce, 1992). Labels for Delivered by Ingenta to: NHTV Breda University of Professional Education IP: 145.101.161.66 On: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 14:14:13 Article(s) and/or figure(s) cannot be used for resale. Please use proper citation format when citing this article including the DOI, publisher reference, volume number and page location. TRANSFORMATIONAL HOST COMMUNITIES 141 the alternative to mass tourism include: alternative The ultimate concept discussed here is justice tourism (Eadington & Smith, 1992), responsible tourism. This type of tourism has only recently been tourism (Wheeller, 1993), new tourism (Mowforth recognized as an emerging type of tourism. A con- & Munt, 2003; Poon, 1993), soft tourism (Sharpley, ceptualization of justice tourism stems from theori- 2000), low-impact tourism (Wearing & Neil, 1999), zation of the ethics of tourism that has appeared in special interest tourism (Douglas, Douglas, & more recent times (Fennell, 2006; Hultsman, 1995; Derret, 2001), and sustainable tourism (Wheeller, Smith & Duffy, 2003). Hultsman (1995) revealed 1993). Alternative tourism has been receiving ever- what “just tourism” means. He promoted the devel- growing academic attention. Alternative tourism opment of “principled” practice and “ethicality” in has been understood in various ways, including: as tourism, and making sure that this imbues tourism polarized opposite and substitute for mass tourism curricula (Hultsman, 1995, pp. 559–562). In their (Weaver & Lawton, 2002); as the new niche mar- brief examination of Rawls’ (1971) “theory of jus- kets arising due to demands of “new” consumers tice,” using social contract theory, they suggested, (Douglas et al., 2001); and what others speak of a “Justice, then, seems to be about the fair distribution transformation in all tourism towards more benign of power, goods and so on within and between soci- forms (Butler, 1992). Evidence that alternative eties” (Smith & Duffy, 2003,