GDP of Palestine could be twice higher without occupation: UN report

A report released Monday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) raised concern over the economic cost of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians, saying that without occupation the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory could easily produce twice the gross domestic product it produces now.

According to the report, more than 61 percent of West Bank land is under the control of Israel and inaccessible to Palestinian producers, while in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are denied access to half of the cultivable area and 85 percent of their fishery resources.

Meanwhile, more than 2.5 million productive trees have been uprooted since 1967.

The government and Palestinian farmers are prohibited from maintaining or constructing water wells, while the occupying power has been extracting water above the level determined by article 40 of appendix I of the Oslo II Accord, signed on Sept. 28, 1995, thus confiscating Palestinian groundwater, the report said.

The report pointed out that since the onset of occupation in 1967, the Palestinian people have never enjoyed sovereign control of their economy, natural resources or territory.

The report also highlighted the impact of the repeated Israeli military operations in Gaza, saying that the direct damage inflicted by three Israeli military operations, between 2008 and 2014, is estimated as at least three times the size of annual production of Gaza's local economy.

The report, to be presented to the United Nations General Assembly in the last week this month, recommended the UN General Assembly establish a systematic, comprehensive and sustainable framework to assess the economic costs and consequences of evolving measures taken by the occupying power. Endit