Area C As previously covered in this paper, Area C comprises more than 60 percent of the West Bank and is under full Israeli administrative and security control. The Oslo Accords delegated the provision of services to the Palestinian communities in Area C to the PA, but the authority to approve or deny the construction of infrastructure essential to the delivery of these services has been retained by Israel. Israeli regulations - which draw on antiquated Jordanian law and military orders - require Palestinian communities to have a Master Plan approved by the ICA in order to carry out any construction and development,265 or to be connected to water and electricity networks.266 Currently, Israel has withheld its approval of the Master Plans of over 90 percent of Palestinian communities in Area C.267 Moreover, while the PA can administer transportation and educational services, it cannot build a new school or road, or even expand or renovate existing ones, without Israeli approval.268 Subsequently, the denial of services to Palestinians in Area C is so extreme that living conditions have become unbearable for many. Few Palestinian communities are currently connected to an electricity network, while 48,000 Palestinians also remain unconnected to a water network and have therefore been forced to carry out unauthorized water infrastructure development that faces the risk of demolition.269 Education and health services have also been obstructed. PASSIA estimates that “some 31 percent of [Palestinian] schools in the area have inadequate water and sanitation facilities” and are often located in “unsafe tents, caravans, crude cement buildings and tin shacks.”270 In comparison, the Israeli colonies located in Area C face no such challenges; the Israeli Ministry of Education extends educational benefits to colonizers that include exemption 265 World Bank, The Economic Effects of Restricted Access to Land in the West Bank, October 2008, 8, available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/ EconomicEffectsofRestrictedAccesstoLandintheWestBankOct.20,08.pdf; BADIL, FPT: Zoning and Planning, supra note 230. 266 B’Tselem, Acting the Landlord: Israel’s Policy in Area C, the West Bank, June 2013, 20, available at: http://www.btselem.org/download/201306_area_c_report_eng.pdf [hereinafter B’Tselem, Acting the Landlord]. 267 B’Tselem, “Restrictions on Palestinian planning,” supra note 204. 268 B’Tselem, “What is Area C?”, 18 May 2014, available at: http://www.btselem.org/area_c/what_is_ area_c [hereinafter B’Tselem, “What is Area C?”]. 269 B’Tselem, Acting the Landlord 20-21, supra note 266. 270 Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) , Area C: The Key to the Two-State Solution, December 2012, 9, available at: http://passia.org/media/filer_public/d0/fd/ d0fd4de4-c909-413d-9cff-db058bece0fc/area-c.pdf 74