potential to interfere with one of Israel’s primary goals in denying Palestinian gas exploitation – control over the oPt’s energy resources as a tool of coercion.121 Thus, energy independence could potentially deprive Israel of the power to wage economic warfare that suppresses the population of the oPt and maintains the coercive environment. The Dead Sea The Dead Sea is a hypersaline lake bordering Jordan, Israel and the West Bank.122 While most famous for the special natural features and location that has made it an important tourist destination, it is also a uniquely lucrative source of salts and minerals.123 Despite the fact that a large section of the Dead Sea’s western border lies within the West Bank, Israel has illegally prevented Palestinians from accessing and exploiting this important resource, thus withholding from them a supply of capital capable of significantly benefiting the beleaguered economies in the oPt. Israeli denial of access to Palestinian economic activity in the Dead Sea is accomplished by taking complete control of the area, through appropriation of large swathes of land along the Dead Sea’s shoreline by declaring them state lands, nature reserves or closed military zones.124 The Oslo Accords contradict international law by reinforcing this control, leaving Palestinians unable to build on or develop even those areas not already appropriated by Israel without permits from Joint Committees.125 Moreover, the World Bank reveals that “neither the PA nor private Palestinian investors have been able to obtain construction permits for tourism-related investments 121 Power, Israel’s Deadly Catch, 14, supra note 65; Susan Power, Preventing the Development of Palestinian Natural Gas Resources in the Mediterranean Sea: Implications for Multinational Corporations Operating in Israel’s Gas Industry, al-Haq, 2014, 14, available at: http://www.alhaq.org/ publications/Gas-report-web.pdf 122 Jaime Wisniak, “The Dead Sea – A Live Pool of Chemicals,” Indian Journal of Chemical Technology 9 (2002): 80, available at: http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/22829/1/IJCT%20 9%281%29%2079-87.pdf [accessed 21 August 2017]. 123 Claudia Nicoletti and Anne-Marie Hearne, Pillage of the Dead Sea: Israel’s Unlawful Exploitation of Natural Resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, al-Haq, 2012, 20-21, available at: http:// www.alhaq.org/publications/publications-index/item/pillage-of-the-dead-sea-israel-s-unlawfulexploitation-of-natural-resources-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory [accessed 21 August 2017]. 124 Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians: A Handbook for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities, BADIL, 2013, 64, available at: http://www.badil.org/phocadownload/ Badil_docs/publications/handbook2013eng.pdf 125 West Bank and Gaza: Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy, World Bank, 2013, 22, available at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/137111468329419171/pdf/ AUS29220REPLAC0EVISION0January02014.pdf [hereinafter World Bank, Area C and Palestinian Economy]. 37