Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 45

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace

Right of Return, Repatriation or Compensation. The United Nations General
Assembly Resolution 194 (1948), reaffirmed annually since 1949, resolved that
Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their
neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that
compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss
of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be
made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
Annex B: Estimated effects of removing restraints on the Palestinian economy
A World Bank study has analyzed the effects of the Israeli occupation on the
Palestinian economy, especially its prospects for development in Area C.
Direct Benefits
The World Bank Report 2014 estimates that the potential additional output from the five
sectors evaluated in this report—agriculture, Dead Sea minerals, mining and quarrying,
tourism, construction, and telecommunications— would amount to at least USD 2.2
billion per annum in valued-added terms—a sum equivalent to 23 percent of 2011
Palestinian GDP. The bulk of this would come from agriculture and Dead Sea minerals
exploitation.
In agriculture, the key issues are access to fertile land, and the availability of water to
irrigate it. We have not included in our calculations the 187,000 dunums of land that fall
under the control of Israeli settlements. (The Ottoman unit dunum is about one-quarter
acre.) To irrigate the 326,400 dunums of other agricultural land notionally available to
Palestinians in Area C would require some 189 MCM of water per year. Current
Palestinian allocations under the Oslo Accords are 138.5 MCM, or 20 percent of the
estimated availability—a share to be revisited at Final Status negotiations. Irrigating this
unexploited area as well as accessing additional range and forest land could deliver an
additional USD 704 million in value added to the Palestinian economy—equivalent to 7
percent of 2011 GDP.
The Dead Sea abounds in valuable minerals, principally large deposits of potash and
bromine. Israel and Jordan together derive some USD 4.2 billion in annual sales of these
products, and account for 6 percent of the world’s supply of potash and fully 73 percent
of global bromine output. Demand for both these products is projected to remain strong,
with the Dead Sea a cheap and easily exploited source. There is no reason to suppose that
Palestinian investors along with prospective international partners would not be able to
reap the benefits of this market, provided they were able to access the resource. Taking as
a benchmark the average value added by these industries to the Jordanian and the Israeli
economies, the Palestinian economy could derive up to USD 918 million per annum—
equal to 9 percent of 2011 GDP, almost equivalent to the size of the entire Palestinian
manufacturing sector.

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