Expert: Israel invested $80bn in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements

Israel has invested nearly $80 billion in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, a Palestinian expert revealed.

Palestinian expert on the Israeli economy and a researcher at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) Assi Al-Atrash said during a lecture held in Ramallah yesterday that the investments include direct funds that generate annual revenue for Israel such as commercial, industrial and agricultural projects in addition to exploiting the region’s natural resources.

According to Al-Atrash as many as 550,000 Israeli settlers live in more than 288 settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Al-Atrash noted that more than 70 per cent of the settlements’ population work inside Israel while the remainder work in the agricultural and industrial projects which employ more than 20,000 Palestinian workers.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian GDP for 2013 was $11.4 billion.

Answering a question about Israel’s annual revenue from these investments, Atrash said that according to estimates “the investments revenues amount to nearly $10 billion annually”.

Israel exploits all the natural resources in the West Bank and Jerusalem including the agricultural land, water, quarries, trees and minerals found in the Dead Sea areas such as phosphate, he explained.

Al-Atrash said that the Palestinians are forbidden from using or constructing in Area C which represents over 61 per cent of the West Bank’s total area of 5,800 square kilometres.

He added that all Israeli settlements on the West Bank and Jerusalem are entirely dependent on groundwater in those areas.

A report issued by the World Bank in 2013 said that the Palestinian economy annually loses nearly $3.4 billion due to the lack of control over Area C.