Counter-infrastructure as resistance in the hydrosocial territory of the occupied Golan Heights

In the decades since 1967, the occupied Golan Heights has become contested hydrosocial territory. On one side, Israel, as occupying power, has transformed water infrastructure, constructing artificial lakes, dams and reservoirs to harness water for settlement agriculture. Such actions have severely restricted the agricultural practices and water management schemes of the Syrian (mainly Druze) farmers of the Golan. These farmers have responded with a counter-hegemonic water infrastructure and associated land use choices designed to bypass discriminatory restrictions on the abstraction, storage and use of water for agriculture. Using settler colonial theory and the concept of hydrosocial territories, we examine the production and effects of this counter-infrastructure for water.