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Annexing Energy AL-HAQ Annexing Energy Exploiting and Preventing the Development Of Oil and Gas in the Occupied Palestinian Territory AL-HAQ August 2015 AL-Haq - 54 Main Street 2nd & 3rd Fl. - Opp. Latin Patriarchate Saint Andrew’s Evangelical Church - (Protestant Hall) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P.O.Box: 1413 - Ramallah - West Bank - Palestine Tel: + 972 (0) 2 2954646/7/9 Fax: + 972 (0) 2 2954903 www.alhaq.org The author would like to thank: Wesam Ahmad, Nada Kiswanson van Hooydonk, Marya Farah, Amanda Elfstrom, Patrick Burke BL, Mariamalia Rodríguez, Shawan Jabarin, Hamza Dado, Maha Abdallah, Authors Dr. Susan Power Mona Sabella, Rula Majrouh, Valentina Azarov, Rachel Borrell, Elisabeth Koek, Eilís Ní Chaithnía, Veerle Shouten, ISBN 978-9950-327-48-1 Auke Wibaut, John Veron, Ingvild Skogvold, Cover Photo By IDF Spokesperson Unit (Israel Defense Forces) [CC BY-SA 3.0 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development team: (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Randa Jamal, Mahmoud Elkhafif and Mutasim Elagraa. Publisher Al-Haq - © All Rights Reserved and all the Al-Haq team Without their assistance and support this report would not be possible. Any quotation of up to 500 words may be used without permission provided that full attribution is given. Longer quotations or entire chapters or sections of this study may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored on any retrieval system of any nature, without the express written permission of Al-Haq. AL-HAQ August 2015 Dedicated to the Memory of Yousra Mahmoud Husdein TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 7. Oil in the Occupied Palestinian Territory .............................................................................................. 76 7.1 Verified Palestinian Oil Resources ..................................................................................................... 76 Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. 10 7.2 Potential Palestinian Oil Resources ................................................................................................. 80 Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 12 7.3 Access Denied: How Israel Blocks the Development of Oil Resources in the OPT ............................ 83 7.4 Exploiting Palestinian Oil under Israel’s Petroleum Law 5712-1952 ................................................... 84 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 15 8. Legal Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 87 2. Annexing Natural Resources in the OPT .............................................................................................. 21 8.1 Israel’s Legal Obligations ................................................................................................................... 87 2.1 Forced Energy Dependence .............................................................................................................. 23 8.2 International Humanitarian Law .......................................................................................................... 91 2.2 Economic Annexation and Gas Revenues ......................................................................................... 25 8.3 International Human Rights Law ......................................................................................................... 100 8.4 Customary International Law ............................................................................................................. 102 3. Blocking the Development of Palestinian Gas: A Twisted Play of Politics ....................................... 28 8.5 The Law of the Sea ............................................................................................................................ 103 3.1 The Gaza Marine ............................................................................................................................... 28 8.6 International Environmental Law ........................................................................................................ 112 3.2 The Palestinian Economic Initiative .................................................................................................... 30 3.3 Israel’s Planned Unilateral Gas Development off the Gaza Coast ................................................... 31 9. Legal Consequences for Violations of International Law .................................................................. 113 3.4 Gaza Marine Exports to Jordan – An Unlikely Deal .......................................................................... 32 9.1 Israel’s Responsibility as Occupying Power .................................................................................... 113 9.2 Corporate Responsibility .................................................................................................................. 114 4. Israel’s Exploitation of Palestinian Gas ................................................................................................ 34 9.3 Third State Responsibility .................................................................................................................. 114 4.1 Restricting Palestinian Maritime Access to Natural Resources under the Oslo Accords .................... 34 9.4 Individual Criminal Responsibility .................................................................................................... 115 4.2 Joint Cooperation Required for Joint Geological Structures ............................................................... 37 9.5 Reparations ....................................................................................................................................... 117 4.3 Israel’s Unilateral Exploitation of Joint Geological Structures ............................................................ 38 4.4 Disputed Licenses .............................................................................................................................. 40 10. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 118 5. Forcibly Closing the Gaza Strip to protect Israel’s Platforms and Pipelines ..................................... 49 11. Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 120 5.1 Protecting Israel’s Gas Infrastructure by military blockades, closure and attacks on the Gaza Strip .. 49 5.2 Israel Attacks Palestinian Fishermen .................................................................................................. 57 Annex 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 124 5.3 Israel’s Destruction of Palestinian Energy Infrastructure in the Gaza Strip ......................................... 60 Annex 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 126 6. Israel’s Gas Distribution Infrastructure ................................................................................................. 64 6.1 Israel’s Gas Supply to the Domestic Market ...................................................................................... 64 6.2 Israel’s Export Infrastructure .............................................................................................................. 67 GLOSSARY Annexation: The unilateral forcible acquisition of the territory of one State by another State. Article Green Line: The 1949 Armistice Line, which is internationally accepted as the boundary between 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity Israel and the OPT. Its name derives from the green ink used to draw the line on the map during the of another State and the acquisition of territory by force. peace talks. Appropriation: Defined as the exercise of control over property; a taking of possession. Hydrocarbon: Organic compounds composed of hydrogen and carbon. Area A: The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo II) Israeli Civil Administration: The body responsible for the implementation of Israel’s government divided the West Bank into three Areas. Area A includes those parts of the West Bank that are under policy in the West Bank. It is part of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which full Palestinian civil and security control. In Area A, which includes (parts of) six major West Bank is a unit in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. cities, the Palestinian authorities assumed “the powers and responsibilities for internal security and public order,” and the administration of civil spheres, such as health, education, policing and other Liquefied
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