'Israeli construction restrictions harm Palestinians'

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released a 20-page report on Tuesday about Israeli restrictions on Palestinian planning and construction in the West Bank's Area C.

The report, titled "Restricting Space," states that Israeli control over Area C has negative consequences for Palestinians' use of land and resources. It calls for easing restrictions and transferring parts of the area to Palestinian control.

Area C makes up 59 percent of the West Bank and is in complete Israeli military and administrative control. It is also where all of the settlements are located, along with up to 150,000 Palestinians, according to estimates. The division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C was part of the 1995 Oslo 2 accord.

"Under the planning regime applied by the Israel Civil Administration (ICA), Palestinian construction is effectively prohibited in some 70% of Area C, or approximately 44% of the West Bank, in areas that have been largely designated for the use of Israeli settlements or the Israeli military," reads the report.

"In order to obtain a building permit, a proposed construction must be consistent with an approved planning scheme - regional, outline or detailed. In practice, however, the Israeli authorities generally allow Palestinian construction only within the boundaries of an ICA-detailed, or special, plan, and those plans cover less than 1% of Area C, much of which is already built up," it says. (16,29)