Targeting Israeli Apartheid: a BDS handbook - Corporate Watch ...

Overview of the Israeli Economy: Extractive Industries 366Extractive IndustriesInternational law and natural resources in the occupied territoriesUN General Assembly Resolution 1803 states that permanent sovereignty over naturalwealth and resources is a “basic constituent of the right to self-determination”. 1Israel's status as occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza was reaffirmed in 2004by the International Court of Justice, which also reaffirmed the right of selfdeterminationof the Palestinian people. 2The Hague Conventions state that “the occupying State shall be regarded only asadministrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agriculturalestates... situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of theseproperties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.” 3The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states: “Destroying or seizingthe property of an adversary unless such destruction or seizure be imperativelydemanded by the necessities of the conflict” is “a war crime.” 4Israel is relatively poor in natural resources. Its extractive industries consist of the lucrativemineral extraction from the Dead Sea, extraction of salt, quarrying for construction materialsand extracting natural gas. The majority of Palestinians have been denied access to the DeadSea, and the economic gains that can be made from it, since the land in the West Bank on thenorthern coast of the Dead Sea was illegally occupied by Israel in 1967. Israeli settlers arealso involved in quarrying in the West Bank and occupied Syrian Golan. This has continueddespite legal challenges asserting its illegality under international law.Mineral extractionThe mineral extraction industry has expanded rapidly since the 1980s, as Israel has increasedits ability to extract and process minerals into high-value products such as fertilizers,pesticides, petrochemicals, cosmetics and plastics. 5 In the decade leading up to 2002, thesales of chemicals tripled to $8 billion, 14 per cent of the country's total industrial productionat the time. 61 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/resources.htm, [accessed 18/3/2011].2 http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&ca, [accessed18/3/2011].3 http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/195, [accessed 18/3/2011].4 http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm, [accessed 18/3/2011].5 http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/2000_2009/2002/1/facets per cent20of per cent20the percent20israeli per cent20economy- per cent20resource-based per cent20indu, [accessed 18/3/2011].6 Ibid.