Area C - Trying to understand

This week I am in the office and so have an opportunity to study some of the complicated aspects of the Occupied Palestinian Territories(OPT).

Area C - shaded blue area

Today I am dealing with the division of the West bank into three areas - Areas A, B and C. Area C is completely under Israeli control - what does that mean?

I am using fact from a UN OCHA fact sheet dated January 2013.

More than 60% of the West bank is designated Area C. Around 150,000 Palestinians live in this mostly rural area. 70% of Area C has been allocated to Israeli settlements (shown in light blue on the map), which are illegal under International Law. Palestinian construction is restricted on 29%, leaving just 1% of Area C where palestinians are allowed development. 

Palestinians houses that have been designed as Area C (after construction) are subject to arbitrary demolition, for security reasons. Palestinians are required to get permits to build and no permits have been issued, so the properties are deemed illegal. 

70% of the Palestinian communities in the West Bank have no access to the water supply and so rely on water brought by tanker at exorbitant rates charged by the Israelis, who have taken control of all water supply in the West Bank. Israeli settlements have unlimited supplies of water. 

In the map shown, the black line is the route of the wall. Often this is well inside the Green Line, which is the Internationally recognised boundary of Palestine, established in 1967. The lighter blue areas are allocated to settlements, the dark blue to Palestinians. The dark bank running down the eastern side of the country is the fertile Jordan valley. 94% of the Jordan Valley is off-limits to Palestinians, being closed military areas, or nature reserves. 

Much of Israel's produce is grown in this area. If you would like to know more about why there is a campaign to boycott Israeli dates grown in the Jordan Valley within the OPT - click here.