population of the West Bank, effectively ghettoizing the local population
in areas with better, though often not adequate, access to water, mostly
in Areas A and B.”178 It is also transparent that this coercive environment is
intentionally engineered by Israel, which was highlighted by a fact finding
mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights when it
stated: “[t]he denial of water is used to trigger displacement, particularly in
areas slated for expansion, especially since these communities are mostly
farmers and herders.”179 The West Bank therefore provides a chilling example
of how specific systems and policies governing water resources can be
engineered to bring about forcible transfer.
Quarries
One of the most important natural resources in the oPt is stone. Indeed, the
stone industry is the largest industry in the oPt, “compos[ing] 7 percent of the
annual GDP and [providing] around 20,000 jobs” according to the Palestinian
Union of Stone and Marble industry.180 Almost all Palestinian quarries and
stone crushers181 are located in the West Bank. These quarries mainly
produce building stones, uncut stone blocks and decorative stones.182 After
1967, Israel started imposing a set of restrictive measures to limit Palestinian
economic growth, some of which specifically targeted the quarrying and stone
crushing industry.183 These policies can be divided into two categories: those
that facilitate the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources through the
establishment of several Israeli quarries in the West Bank;184 and those that
deny access to natural resources through restrictive Israeli permit policies and
178 Id., 306.
179 Id., 303.
180 Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR), “Extraction,” n.d., available at: http://www.
decolonizing.ps/site/extraction/ [accessed 21 August 2017] [hereinafter DAAR, “Extraction”].
181 There are two kinds of stone crushers: ‘integrated crushers’ which are located at quarries and crush
stones after they are removed from the ground, and ‘recycling crushers’ which break down waste
from stone and marble quarries. See, Union of Stone & Marble, The Aggregates Industry on the
West Bank: A Consultation Paper, December 2011, 3, http://www.usm-pal.ps/en-all/resources/the_
aggregates_industry_on_the_westbank.pdf [hereinafter USM, The Aggregates Industry].
182 DAAR, “Extraction,” supra note 180.
183 Basim Makhool and Mahmoud Abu-Alrob, Quarrying, Crushing and Stone Industries in Palestine:
Current Situation and Prospects, Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, April 1999, 3, available
at: http://www.mas.ps/files/server/20141811122117-1.pdf
184 Ali Abunimah, “End All Business in Israeli Settlements, Says Human Rights Watch,” The Electronic
Intifada, 19 January 2016, available at: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/end-allbusiness-israeli-settlements-says-human-rights-watch [accessed 21 August 2017].
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