26 The Independent Commission for Human Rights - ICHR Palestinian investors have also incurred additional losses. Some local fresh herbs packaging centres had to sell their products to Israeli corporations in fear of delays and damages at crossing points, reducing the profit margin of those centres. The closure of crossing points between Palestinian cities and the 1948 Palestinian territory clearly impacted various economy sectors and contributed to an overall decline of sales by 70 percent. Of these, the Al-Jalama crossing has been locked down for a long time. 1.1.2.5 Competition with settlement products The Palestinian territory has continued to be a key market to dispose of low quality exports of Israel in general, and Israeli settlements in particular. According to World Bank reports, settlement products to the Palestinian territory amount to some US$ 500 million per annum. The MoNE seized more than ILS 200,000 worth of Israeli settlement products on the Palestinian market. Of note, settlement products are not subject to any health controls. To lure Palestinian consumers, the majority of these products bear counterfeit trademarks of international brands and agencies. Settlement products have been in fierce competition with Palestinian national products, particularly in the dates and fresh herbs sectors. By issuing Israeli clearing invoices, the Israeli occupying authorities have facilitated the entry and marketing of these Israeli commodities across Palestinian governorates. In this vein, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that 112 international corporations have business relations with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli occupying authorities have impeded functions of the team, which documented agricultural damage resulting from both Israeli practices and forces of nature. In addition to tampering with their equipment, the team members were chased and denied permits to access hotspots and document agricultural damage in areas behind the Separation Wall and settlement security fences. When they documented agricultural damage in areas in close proximity to settlements, the team members were directly harassed by Israeli settlers. Documented on the Inventory of Agricultural Damage of the Palestinian Agricultural Disaster Risk Reduction and Insurance Fund (PADRRIF), agricultural losses caused by Israeli practices were close to ILS 20,596,198. Compared to ILS 1,050,659 in the livestock production sectors, crop production and agriculture equipment losses amounted to ILS 17,047,123 and ILS 2,498,415 respectively.16 1.1.3 Local government The Israeli occupying authorities have obstructed Palestinians’ ability to use existing resources in Area C. The right to development and construction was impeded by restrictive planning policies put in place by the Israeli authorities, first and foremost the Israeli Civil Administration. Less than 1 percent of structural plan applications submitted by Palestinians to the Israeli authorities was approved. Only five of all 123 structural plan applications prepared and submitted to the Israeli side were approved.17 Israel has maintained a policy of procrastination, usually invoked by unannounced political and security reasons that have nothing to do with the technical content of structural plans. As a consequence of this policy, those plans have ended up outdated and in need of continuous updates. Recent aerial images also need to be developed. Not to mention extra financial costs, spatial plans which Palestinians took the initiative to develop were not approved, depriving them of their right to development and negatively impacting their right to adequate housing and access to basic services. As a result, Palestinians have been forced to unlicensed construction, putting their homes and structure at risk of demolition. 16 17 Letter from the PADRRIF Agricultural Compensation Department, January 2022. Letter from the Urban Planning and Zoning, Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), February 2022. The Situation of Human Rights in Palestine