Ghnaim told the Voice of Palestine Radio that
Israel started pumping gas from a natural gas and oil field near the West Bank
village of Rantees, to the west of Ramallah.
The minister said that the field is located
alongside the separation wall that divides the West Bank and Israel. He added
that 80 percent of the field is on lands owned by the Rantees residents.
He added that the Israeli security forces have
beefed up presence in the area, preventing villagers from reaching their lands
and farms to keep the secrecy of the work.
Ghnaim said that Israel started the exploration
activities in the field “without consulting or coordinating with the
Palestinian Authority (PA).”
The Palestinian minister said that the “field
contains 1.5 billion barrels of oil and about 1.7 billion cubic meter of
natural gas.”
According
to the minister, the Israeli move is in violation of the Oslo Peace Accords.
Under the Oslo Accords, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) in 1993, any exploration work for natural resources should
be coordinated and mutual.
Ghnaim said that the “PA will take urgent procedures that
may include suing Israel in international courts.”
The Israeli Givot Olam Oil Ltd company said that it
discovered the Meged oil field, potentially the largest oil field in Israel, in
2004. The company said it produces 1,000 barrels every day and it is scheduled
to develop the production by November.
Israel started the construction of the eight-meter-high
cement wall in the West Bank in 2002. It said that the wall is to prevent
Palestinian militants from infiltrating into Israel and carry out deadly
bombing attacks.
Israeli Supreme Court decided in September 2007 that the
construction of the wall causes severe damages to residents of the village and
demanded the government map out alternative route for the wall.
In 2004, the international court in The Hague ruled the wall
“illegal” and called on Israel to demolish it. Israel rejected the decision.
Khalil Tafakji, the Palestinian expert of Israeli settlement
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, said that the separation wall has
relocated a great deal of rich farmland and water wells to the Israeli side of
the wall.
Tafakji said that at least 115 Palestinian towns and
villages have so far been directly affected by the wall which cuts them off
from their land and resources. Of the 47 Palestinian towns and villages along
phase one of the wall's route, 21 are separated from more than half of their
land by the wall. Thirty-six groundwater wells and over 200 cisterns are
isolated from their communities by the wall with an additional 14 wells
threatened for demolition in the wall’s “buffer zone.”
He added that the wall significantly impaired access of
Palestinians in isolated villages to hospitals, particularly in the cities of
Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, and East Jerusalem. The expert said 71 primary health
clinics were isolated from the rest of the West Bank between the wall and the
green line or in areas enclaved by the depth wall.
According to Tafakji, these clinics whilst essential
providers of primary health care are not fully equipped to serve the
surrounding communities. For instance they do not have delivery rooms, or
specialized doctors.
