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February 2014 THE NAKBA CONTINUES Israel continues its theft of Palestinian natural resources. By Jonathan Cook A World Bank report has warned that the crisis-plagued Palestinian economy is being stripped of billions of dollars each year by Israeli plundering in Palestinian territory of key natural resources. The report suggests that Israel gradually is destroying any hope that a future Palestinian state could be economically viable. Its publication coincided with accusations from Palestinian officials that Israel was preparing to steal the profits from the largest underground reserve of oil ever discovered in the area. The Meged 5 field appears to be located under both Israeli and Palestinian territory. According to the Oslo accords, Israel is obligated to coordinate any exploration for natural resources in shared territory with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and reach agreements on how to divide the spoils. Ashraf Khatib, an official at the PA’s negotiations support unit, said the Meged oil field was part of Israel’s general “theft of Palestinian national resources.” “The problem for us is that the occupation is not just about settlements and land confiscation,” he said. “Israel is also massively profiting from exploiting our resources. There’s lots of money in it for Israel, which is why the occupation has become so prolonged.” Shares in Givot Olam, an Israeli oil exploration company, rallied in October on reports that it had located much larger oil reserves at its Meged site than expected. The field is located a few dozen yards on Israel’s side of the Green Line, the armistice line that separates Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. But the oil field — which extends over a large area, somewhere between 48 and 96 square miles, according to officials at the Israeli energy ministry – is assumed to lie under occupied territority as well. According to Palestinian officials, Israel — claiming security — has moved the course of its concrete and steel separation wall to provide Givot Olam with unfettered access to the site, between the Israeli town of Rosh Haayin and the Palestinian village of Rantis, northwest of Ramallah. Israel and Givot Olam, however, have made access difficult, arguing that Meged 5 is affected by an Israeli military firing range next to it on the other side of the Green Line, in occupied Palestinian territory. Dror Etkes, an Israeli researcher who tracks Israeli activities in the West Bank, said he was unaware of any military training ever having taken place at the firing range. Last year, when Meged 5’s reserves were believed to be 1.5 million barrels — less than half the current estimates — Jamil al-Mutaur, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority, threatened to sue Israel in the international courts for its unilateral operations at Meged. Gidon Bromberg, director of the environmental group Friends of the Earth Middle East, said: “If there are reserves of oil under the occupied territories, then absolutely Israel must talk to the Palestinian Authority about any exploration being undertaken to extract them.” News about the Meged oil field arrived at an embarrassing moment — as the World Bank argued that Israel was destroying the Palestinian economy either by plundering Palestinian natural resources for itself or by making them inaccessible to Palestinians through movement restrictions and classifying areas as military zones. The report focuses on the large area of the West Bank designated as Area C in the Oslo accords, which continues to be under full Israeli control and where Israel has built more than 200 settlements for Jews only. Comprising nearly two-thirds of West Bank territory, Area C includes most of the Palestinians’ major resources, including land for agriculture and development, water aquifers, Dead Sea minerals, quarries, and archaeological and tourism sites. Israel’s energy and water ministry, which oversees oil exploration, is led by Silvan Shalom, a close ally of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and a supporter of Israel’s settlement program in the West Bank. According to the World Bank’s research, the Palestinian Authority could generate at least $3.4 billion in extra income a year if given full control of Area C. A World Bank spokeswoman said the figure was “very conservative,” as there were some resources, including the oil field, for which its researchers had not been able to collect data. Nonetheless, even the income from resources identified by the World Bank would increase the PA’s GDP by a third, reducing a ballooning deficit, cutting unemployment rates that have reached 23%, easing poverty and food insecurity and helping the fledgling state break free of aid dependency. But none of this could be achieved, said the Bank, as long as Israel maintains its chokehold on Area C — or what the Bank calls “restricted land.” According to Mariam Sherman, the World Bank’s director in the West Bank and Gaza: “Unleashing the potential from that ‘restricted land’…and allowing Palestinians to put these resources to work would provide whole new areas of economic activity and set the economy on the path to sustainable growth.” US Secretary of State John Kerry revived peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians this summer after promising the PA that Washington would help raise $4 billion to invest in the Palestinian economy, much of it directed at projects in Area C. However, the World Bank report suggests that Israeli movement restrictions in Area C and its refusal to issue development permits make ventures there too risky for Palestinian investors. “The PA is facing a $2 billion deficit,” Khatib said, “and desperately needs to invest in major projects taking advantage of our natural resources. That is the only way to end the PA’s dependence on international aid.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he is pursuing “economic peace” with the Palestinians in the occupied territories in lieu of diplomatic advances. The PA, by contrast, characterizes Israel’s policy as one of “economic warfare” against Palestinians. Etkes said: “The reality is that Israel is enjoying the economic fruits of the occupation by exploiting resources that belong to the Palestinians.” One of the most important resources is water. In the case of the region’s main aquifers, which lie under the hills of the West Bank, Israel has demolished hundreds of Palestinian wells to maintain its exclusive control over water resources. Settlements and military bases have been located over the main extraction points. According to a report issued by al-Haq earlier this year, Israel took 89% of the total water withdrawn from the West Bank aquifer, leaving the Palestinians with only 11 percent. As a result, Israelis had on average 300 liters of water a day each, compared with just 73 liters for Palestinians – below the 100 liters per capita recommended by the World Health Organization. Regarding another key resource, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that a dozen Israeli firms should be able to continue extracting stone for construction from West Bank quarries — at an annual loss to the Palestinian economy of $900 million, according to the PA. The judges ruled that the exploitation of the quarries was justified because Israel’s occupation was no longer temporary but had become “prolonged.” The ruling was widely criticized by legal experts, who argued it ignored prohibitions on resource theft in international law, including the 1907 Hague Convention. Meged 5 would not be the first time Israel has plundered its neighbors’ oil reserves. In 1975 it emerged that Israel had been drilling at the Abu Rudeis field following its occupation of the Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 war. The oil field supplied two-thirds of Israel’s domestic needs before Israel was forced to hand back the wells to Egypt. Israel continued to try to exploit Sinai’s oil, drilling further south at the Alma field, but had to return those wells too when it signed the Camp David peace agreement with Egypt in 1979. Hundreds of sites inside Israel and the occupied territories were surveyed for oil in subsequent years without significant success — until the Meged find. Israel’s announcements over the past few years of discoveries of large natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean has increased tensions with neighboring countries, especially Lebanon, which has claimed that Israel is drilling in areas where maritime borders are disputed. Two deposits, named Tamar and Leviathan, are expected to make Israel a gas exporter by 2016. The Palestinians have located their own significant gas field just off the coast of Gaza. In 2000, then Palestinian President Yasser Arafat declared the site “will provide a solid foundation for our economy, for establishing an independent state.” However, Israel has repeatedly stymied efforts to extract the gas, arguing that the profits would be used to fund terrorism. Instead, the Palestinians have continued to be dependent on Israel for meeting their energy requirements. – Third World Network Features. -ends- About the author: Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His most recent book is Disappearing Palestine.
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