for certain projects out of certainty that they would be denied.142 The sheer amount of actions requiring prior permission from the JWC, including basic repairs and using pipelines over 2” in diameter,143 fosters asymmetric Palestinian dependence on Israel to the extent that Israel has been able to extract Palestinian approval for colony water infrastructure as a precondition for its approval of important Palestinian water projects.144 Area C of the West Bank is under full Israeli control and is the location of nearly all Israeli colonies. Therefore, it is the area prioritized for colony expansion and annexation by Israel and is the most vulnerable and strategically targeted for implementation of policies aimed at forcibly transferring Palestinians.145 Consequently, all Palestinian water projects in Area C are required to secure an additional permit from the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), which “is systematically ‘designed to restrict the development of Palestinian communities’”146 and the ICA strategically withholds permission for “the vast majority” of applications.147 For example, the ICA refuses to recognize 88 percent of Palestinian villages in Area C and thus categorically denies them permission for any infrastructure148 including water wells necessary to sustain the population.149 Out of the 2,020 applications submitted by Palestinians in Area C between 2010 and 2014, only 1.5 percent were approved.150 The ICA’s obstruction has resulted in the denial or delay of even the well construction that managed to obtain JWC approval. This has been hugely deleterious because “apart from in the North-Eastern Basin, almost all of the productive zones for well-drilling from the Mountain Aquifer are in Area C.”151 Israel has also demonstrated a refusal to abide by the terms of the Oslo Accords when they prove contrary to its interests, notably by completing projects without first applying for permits from the JWC – such as 142 Amnesty International, Troubled Waters, 29, supra note 37. 143 Selby, “Cooperation, Domination and Colonisation,” 7, supra note 136. 144 Id., 17. 145 Samit D’Cunha, “The First Plague: The Denial of Water as a Forcible Transfer Under International Humanitarian Law,” Michigan State International Law Review 24, no. 2(2016): 301. [hereinafter D’Cunha, “The First Plague”]. 146 Selby, “Cooperation, Domination and Colonisation,” 9, supra note 136. 147 EWASH and al-Haq, Joint Parallel Report, 7, supra note 132. 148 Selby, “Cooperation, Domination and Colonisation,” 9, supra note 136. 149 EWASH and al-Haq, Joint Parallel Report, 7, supra note 132. 150 OCHA oPt, Under Threat: Demolition Orders in Area C of the West Bank, , September 2015, 4, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/demolition_orders_in_area_c_of_the_west_bank_ en.pdf 151 Selby, “Cooperation, Domination and Colonisation,” 9, supra note 136. 41