!!!!!!!!: Israel to drill for oil in the West Bank A large reserve may lie under Israel and the occupied territories, but Palestinians are unlikely to reap the benefits. According to the World Bank, Israels occupation is preventing the Palestinians from exploiting key natural resources, either by plundering them for itself or by making them inaccessible to Palestinians through movement restrictions and classifying areas as military zones. The World Bank report did not include the Meged oil field among the Palestinian natural resources it listed. A spokeswoman said there had not been enough data available for its researchers to assess the significance of the oil field. In the report, the World Bank focuses on a large area of the West Bank designated as Area C in the Oslo Accords, which continues to be under Israels full control and where Israel has built more than 200 settlements. Area C, comprising nearly two-thirds of West Bank territory, includes most of the Palestinians major resources, including land for agriculture and development, water aquifers, Dead Sea minerals, quarries, and archaeological and tourism sites. It is also where much of the Meged reserves are likely to be located. Israels energy and water ministry is led by Silvan Shalom, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a supporter of Israels settlement programme in the West Bank. Naftali Bennett, who is the trade and industry minister and the leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, has repeatedly called for Israels formal annexation of Area C. According to the Banks research, the Palestinian Authority could generate at least $3.4bn in extra income a year if given full control of Area C - though that figure does not take account of the expected boom in oil revenues. The World Bank spokeswoman said the figure was very conservative as there were some resources, such as 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 PAs GDP by a third, reducing a ballooning deficit, cutting unemployment rates that have reached 23 percent, 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. aljazeera/news/africa/2013/11/kenyan-president-vows-review-new-media-law-2013113423576743.html
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 16:53:35 +0000
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