Expert: Gaza's future lies under the seabed

Israel/Palestine conflict

Expert: Gas can save Gaza

Emil Forsberg

Updated 07.43 | Published 07.30

 

War-damaged buildings in Gaza City. Photo: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Palestine can stand on its own two feet, according to experts.

If only they were allowed to extract the gas underground.

- They won't be the next Qatar, but it would be their own revenue and not aid, says expert Michael Barron.

Recognition of Palestine as a state would remove all doubts that the Palestinian authorities have the right to extract the natural gas resources found in the Gaza Marine field, Michael Barron tells The Guardian.

Something that could generate up to four billion dollars in revenue.

“They wouldn’t be the next Qatar or Singapore, but it would be their own revenue, not aid, on which the Palestinian economy still depends,” he says.

Plans to start gas extraction at the field have been in the works for nearly 30 years, but have been halted after a row with Israel over ownership.

“The 1993 Oslo Accords give the Palestinian Authority clear jurisdiction over territorial waters and land, as well as the power to legislate for oil and gas extraction and issue licenses for it,” Barron says.

“Control over natural resources was a key part of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s state-building agenda. Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian resources was and remains a central part of the conflict.”

Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO from 1969 to 2004. Photo: Peter Knopp

Israel opposes plans for Palestinian gas extraction and fears that the revenues will end up in the hands of Hamas.

However, Barron says that Israel has its own gas supply and that as long as a Palestinian state with recognized governance exists, Israel has no motive or legal right to block Palestine from exploiting its single largest natural resource.