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West Bank oil and gas discovery looks set to prolong already intractable conflict

May 4, 2014 at 4:48 pm

When the United Nations General Assembly convenes for its annual meeting next month, the PLO/PA will make a request for “non-member state” status. Even if successful, the move would hardly be a game changer. In fact, things may get worse, not least because credible reports of the presence of oil and natural gas in the occupied Palestinian territories are set to make the conflict more explosive than ever.

Documents obtained from Britain’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) by the Palestine Policy Network (Al-Shabaka) through a Freedom of Information Act request, confirm that there is potential for a Palestinian petroleum sector in the West Bank.


According to Victor Kattan, Al-Shabaka’s programme director, “The new documents reveal that, in addition, Israel may be exploiting an oil field located near Ramallah within the occupied Palestinian territories. The documents also point to the possible existence of two other oil fields near Qalqilya and another near Hebron.”

Judging from its past record, this development would make an end to Israel’s occupation much more unlikely and be yet another excuse to tighten its grip over the territories conquered in 1967. The case of Jerusalem is a stark reminder. Despite undertakings given under the Oslo Accord, Israel has disallowed the functioning of Palestinian institutions there, foremost among them being Orient House and the Chamber of Commerce, and is pressing ahead with its Judaisation programme in the occupied city.

The policy has made a mockery of the PA claim that it is their future capital and belies their pet project – building the institutions of state. Several parties share a collective responsibility for this disastrous failure. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has resided in Jerusalem intermittently since becoming the international Middle East Quartet’s peace envoy with the specific task of supporting institution-building and economic development in the Palestinian territories. Under his watch Palestinian business in Jerusalem has ground to a halt. Today the 360,000 Palestinians in the city live in virtual limbo, being neither represented by the PA nor citizens of the Israeli state.

Like most members of his coalition government, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not believe in the establishment of a Palestinian state. His writings, speeches and actions all bear testimony to this. Shortly after taking office in 1996, Netanyahu told a central committee meeting of the Likud that “there will never be a Palestinian state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan”; it would be against his political nature.

Now well into his second term, he pays lip service to the concept but only to save face before the international community. On rare occasions he offers to remove a few check points in the occupied West Bank, return the remains of some dead Palestinians and free a few dozen prisoners; and promises to allow the delivery of the Russian armoured cars now held up in Jordan. None of these gestures mask the fundamental Zionist principle that conquered territory must never be returned.

Meanwhile, the statistics continue to make gruesome reading. A report published this week by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (OCHA) confirmed that Israel has classified 18 per cent of the West Bank as restricted territory for military training. This is actually more than the land under the control of the Palestinian Authority in Area A, at just 17.7 per cent.

With the status quo firmly in their favour, the Israelis have shown no inclination to change; why should they? The West Bank market is open to Israeli produce, the PA is getting money from Arab and international donors and it is fully committed to security cooperation with the occupation authorities. Faced with no effective challenge Israel can get on with tightening its control of the West Bank. This year, the Netanyahu government has already allocated 1.6 billion shekels for settlement expansion.

Whatever the size of the oil and gas reserves revealed by the FCO disclosures, the chances of the Palestinian people benefitting are extremely remote; they have not benefited at all from the discovery of natural gas off the shores of Gaza 12 years ago. It remains on the sea bed because the Israelis will neither pay the world market price for the commodity nor are they willing to share the proceeds with the Palestinian Authority.

After the stoppage of supplies from Egypt and the discovery of substantial gas reserves off the coast of Haifa, Cyprus and the waters between Lebanon and Palestine, the Israelis are preparing to cash in. The new discoveries promise not only to satisfy domestic needs but also enable Israel to become a major exporter. Although extraction has not started yet, Tel Aviv is so confident that a few months ago Finance Minister Yufal Shtaininsh offered to supply India after Iran stopped its sales to Delhi.

How this will be achieved remains to be seen. Both Turkey and Lebanon have rejected Israel’s territorial claims to the gas. And whatever the PA does the Palestinian people will not relinquish their rights over the reserves in their land either. If the settlement issue is seen as a major “obstacle” to peace, the presence of oil and gas in the West Bank looks set to prolong the already intractable conflict.