THE PALESTINIAN people paid a heavy cumulative cost, estimated at $50 billion, between 2000 and 2020 due to the additional restrictions imposed by Israel in the part of Area C of the West Bank available for Palestinian development, says the latest UNCTAD report to the UN General Assembly.
The report, entitled ‘Economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people: The toll of the additional restrictions in Area C, 2000–2020’, estimates the cost of the additional restrictions at $2.5 billion per year.
It indicates that the cumulative cost between 2000 and 2020 is equivalent to three times the West Bank GDP in 2020 and over 2.5 times the Palestinian GDP in the same year.
Area C of the occupied West Bank accounts for about 60% of the West Bank and incorporates all Israeli settlements. It is under Israeli civil and security control.
Despite several UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions that emphasise the illegality, under international law, of settlements, and the acquisition of territory by force, they continue to grow and expand.
The occupying power provides generous incentives to settlers and entrepreneurs to facilitate industrial and agricultural ventures, which have encouraged hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens to move to the subsidised settlements, where living standards are, on average, higher than in Israel.
The occupying power includes 70% of Area C within the boundaries of the regional councils of settlements, rendering that part of Area C off-limits for Palestinian development, even though Area C is the largest and only contiguous part of the West Bank and has the most fertile land and valuable natural resources.
Meanwhile, Palestinian access to the remainder of Area C (30%) remains heavily restricted. The report assesses the economic impact of the additional restrictions on economic activities in this part of Area C.
It said that an array of restrictions imposed by the occupying power have constrained economic activities and the movement of people and goods in Areas A, B, and C. They include a ban on the importation of certain technology and inputs, a stringent permit regime, bureaucratic controls, checkpoints, gates, earth mounds, roadblocks, and trenches, in addition to the Wall.
To facilitate the expansion of settlements, Israel imposes additional restrictions on Palestinian economic activities in Area C, over and above those imposed in Areas A and B. As a result, observed economic activities in the 30% of Area C outside the boundaries of the regional councils of settlements are considerably lower than in Areas A and B.
The report estimates the cost of these additional restrictions at 25% of the West Bank’s GDP. In other words, if the level of restrictions on Palestinian development in the 30% of Area C available for Palestinian development was the same as those applied in Areas A and B, the size of the West Bank economy would have been substantially larger than it is now.
The benefits accruing to the occupying power from settlements in occupied Area C and East Jerusalem are the flip side of the cost to the Palestinian people.
The report estimates the annual contribution of these settlements to the economy of the occupying power at $41 billion or 227% of the total Palestinian GDP in 2021. This GDP, produced using Palestinian land and natural resources, is another indicator of the significant cost borne by the Palestinian people because of the emergence and continuous growth of settlements.
Palestinians are being battered, assaulted, robbed, have their homes demolished and are being murdered by the Israeli occupation, while the rest of the world looks on and makes an occasional plea for ‘justice for Palestine’, and for the Palestinian people.
There have been some very big demonstrations in the UK in the last 2 years in support of Palestine, where there is massive working class support for the establishment of the state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
With the Israeli regime now swinging further to the right, and now including fascists, now is the time that these pledges must be honoured and action taken for a total boycott of Israel. There is not a moment to lose!
