A senior United Nations official has warned of a “one-state reality of perpetual occupation” in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), without serious action being taken.
The new report by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) highlights continued Palestinian dependency on Israel, “particularly on matters related to freedom of movement, access to natural resources, financial capital, water and energy.”
UNSCO states that “in the context of this aid dependency resulting from the occupation, unlocking the Palestinian economy by lifting restrictions should be a priority.”
The UNSCO report will be presented at the bi-annual meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) in New York on September 19, 2016.
The AHLC “serves as the principal policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance” to the oPt, and is is chaired by Norway and co-sponsored by the EU and the US. Other participants are the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
UNSCO also draws attention to the “dire humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip, “exacerbated by [Israel’s] highly restrictive closure regime which feed instability, damage Gaza’s economic development and hinder basic service delivery.”
The report calls for “predictable and uninterrupted supply of construction material and other items considered as having a ‘dual use’ in order to meet the demand in Gaza.”
Citing continued Israeli settlement construction and the demolition of Palestinian structures in the West Bank, UNSCO stresses “an urgent need for affirmative steps to reverse the negative trends on the ground in order to prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict that is incompatible with realizing the national aspirations of both peoples.”