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After Israel’s recent military operations and the ensuing massive destruction of Gaza, the international community has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. However, it is impossible to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine for a long time without long-term investment in Palestine’s economic and human development and billions of dollars a year.
One neglected way to generate these revenues is to allocate its fair share of the oil and gas reserves in the Occupied Territories and the Eastern Mediterranean to Palestine, which is currently only exploited by Israel.
A kind A recent study The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) pointed out that the newly discovered natural gas in the Levant Basin is in the range of 122 trillion cubic feet, while the recoverable oil is estimated at 1.7 billion barrels. These reserves provide an opportunity to allocate and share approximately US$524 billion among different parties in the region.
Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967 and the blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007 have prevented the Palestinian people from exercising any control over their own fossil fuel resources, deprived them of much-needed fiscal and export revenues, and made Palestine The economy is in trouble. On the verge of collapse.
The economic costs suffered by the occupied Palestinian people are well documented: the movement of people and goods is strictly restricted; the confiscation and destruction of property and assets; the loss of land, water and other natural resources; Market separation; and expansion of Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law.
The Palestinian people also have limited control over their fiscal space and policies. According to the “Paris Protocol on Economic Relations,” Israel controls Palestinian monetary policy, borders, and trade. It also imposes customs duties, value-added taxes and income taxes on Palestinians working in Israel and then pays them to the Palestinian government. UNCTAD estimates that under the occupation, the Palestinian people lost US$47.7 billion in fiscal revenue during the period 2007-2017, including revenue leaked to Israel and accrued interest. In comparison, the Palestinian government’s development expenditures over the same period were approximately US$4.5 billion.
The prolonged blockade of Gaza and regular military operations have kept more than half of the population in the territory below the poverty line, and the annual loss of GDP is US$16.7 billion. This figure does not take into account the huge opportunity cost of preventing the Palestinian people from using natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza.
The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Oslo II Agreement, gave the Palestinian Authority (PA) maritime jurisdiction over waters within 20 nautical miles from the coast. The Palestinian Authority signed a 25-year natural gas exploration contract with the British Gas Group in 1999. In the same year, the large gas field Gaza Marine was discovered 17 to 21 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza. However, despite preliminary discussions between the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority and the British Gas Company on the sale of gas from the oil field and the provision of much-needed income to the occupied Palestinian territory, the Palestinians have not realized any benefits.
Since the blockade of Gaza in 2007, the Israeli government has established de facto control over Gaza’s offshore natural gas reserves. The contractor, British Gas, has since been dealing with the Israeli government, effectively bypassing the Palestinian government in terms of exploration and development rights.
Israel also controls the Megud oil and gas field in the occupied West Bank. Israel stated that the oil field is located west of the armistice line in 1948, but most of the reservoir is located under Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Recently, Israel began to develop new oil and gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean, entirely for its own benefit.
With regard to the expropriation and development of Palestinian oil and natural gas resources, Israel’s actions violated the Hague Regulations, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the letter and spirit of international humanitarian law and human rights law that deal with the issue of the occupier’s development of common resources. Power without considering the interests, rights and shares of the occupied population.
To date, the international community has pledged US$860 million to rebuild Gaza after the recent attack, but even before the recent military aggression, UNCTAD estimated that it would take at least US$838 million a year to lift the population of Gaza out of poverty. A fair share of oil and gas revenue will provide Palestinians with sustainable funding to invest in long-term economic reconstruction, recovery and recovery. Another option is to allow these common resources to be independently and exclusively developed by Israel and become another fuse for conflict and violence.
Of course, sustainable economic recovery and sustainable political settlement are mutually reinforcing. The United Nations insists on its long-term position that only a negotiated two-state solution can achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace. The United Nations continues to work to establish an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable Palestinian state, coexisting in peace and security with Israel. The economic survival of the Palestinian state will depend on the Palestinians’ ability to control their own economy and whether they can fairly obtain their share of Palestinian oil and gas reserves.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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