Palestine suffers $1b in losses annually due to colonies

Ramallah: An initial assessment has estimated that Palestinians suffer annual losses amounting to about $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) as a result of expanding Israeli colony activities in the West Bank.

The estimate was made in a recent study by the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies released on Tuesday.

“Israeli Colony Activities: Disastrous Effects on the Palestinian Economy” said that colony activities harm every single Palestinian in the West Bank in all aspects of life, cripple potential for a prosperous life and limit individual income.

The study said that West Bankers suffer a reduction of at least 10.2 per cent of their total national income. West Bank-based colonists impose strict restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and seize Palestinian natural resources.

The study said that in the agricultural sector in the West Bank, Palestinian farmers lose $153 million in direct losses of their seasonal products. It claimed that Palestinian industries lose $212.7 million directly, the tourist sector in the West Bank loses $63 million and the construction sector loses $60 million. This results in direct losses of $488.7 million and the Palestinian economy also suffers $385.3 million in indirect losses.

The study warned that in reality, Palestinian losses are much higher given the fact many sectors were not taken into consideration as teams were not able to gather statistics because of the hardships the Israeli occupation created.

Hanida Ganem, who heads the forum, said that Israeli colony activities in the West Bank left no room whatsoever for the two-state solution. She said that the Israelis change the West Bank’s geography and the lines of the boundaries.

The study has had a tremendous effect on some members of the Palestinian leadership, who have recommended Palestine sue the Israeli regime on April 1 once it becomes a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its expanding colony activities in the Palestinian territories.

Mustafa Al Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said Palestine must sue Israel given colonists had seized huge plots of privately-owned Palestinian land. Another factor, he argued, was the economic hardships which the Israeli occupation creates.

He said those hardships include Israeli checkpoints which have spread all over the West Bank. He recalled the reports of the International Monetary Bank, which stated that Palestinians suffer losses which amount to $3 billion annually as a result of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.