Israel's land confiscations &tc, main causes of crisis in OT {edit}

[Englander]

Israel's land confiscations, home demolitions, exploitation of
natural resources main causes of crisis in occupied Arab territories,
Second Committee told

Source: United Nations General Assembly

Date: 27 Oct 2005

GA/EF/3121

Sixtieth General Assembly
Second Committee
13th & 14th Meetings (AM & PM)

Delegates also Discuss Effects of Globalization, Hear Introduction of
Text on Humanitarian Aid for Guatemala , El Salvador

Israel’s continued confiscation of lands, destruction of homes, and exploitation of natural resources had remained the leading causes of the socio-economic crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories, a senior United Nations official told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it discussed permanent sovereignty of occupied Arab peoples over their natural resources.

Introducing the report on that subject, Mervat Tallawy, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), stressed that agricultural losses in the occupied territories, especially the uprooting of more than a million olive trees, the demolition of homes and restrictions on the movement of goods and persons had deepened unemployment and poverty. In the West Bank alone, more than 700 physical obstacles, including checkpoints, military observation towers, and gates had obstructed internal movement, disrupting commerce and access to schools, as well as health services.

She went on to say that Israel’s continuing construction of the West Bank barrier had severely restricted Palestinian access to thousands of hectares of olive trees. The construction had also led to an increase in land confiscations, isolated water supplies, thwarted investment, contributed to the environmental degradation of flora and fauna and sparked a sharp decline in commercial activities. Moreover, illegal Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory was also continuing, with the number of settlers increasing by 6 per cent to 256,000 between 2003 and 2004. In addition, about 20,000 Israeli settlers lived in 45 settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan, exacerbating the living conditions of the local Arab population, which was already suffering from a lack of access to natural resources and social services.

Reinforcing that point, the observer for Palestine said Israel had been exploiting and destroying Palestinian natural resources for 38 years, in violation of its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. During the initial construction of the West Bank separation wall, Israel had confiscated 200 cisterns and 36 groundwater wells, and had threatened to demolish 14 other wells, forcing Palestinians to pay 12 per cent more for water. The continuing construction of the wall and expansion of West Bank settlements would annex land containing Palestinian water resources, including the rich western aquifer.

The separation wall had also locked farmers behind randomly opened gates, while their crops withered and their poultry starved to death, he said. Residents in nearby areas currently received running water for only two hours every three days, while Israeli settlers in the area consumed 348 litres a day -- 17 times more than Palestinians. In addition, some 200 Israeli factories produced harmful chemicals and toxins that devastated land and underground water, while Israeli settlements used Palestinian land to dump untreated waste.

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