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Palestine’s $500 Billion Reason To Be Subjugated
This can’t be a coincidence.
By now, you have probably heard about what is going on in Palestine. We have been told that the mass offensive on Palestine by Israel is in self-defence after Hamas attacked and killed 1,400 Israelis. Yet, the mass bombing of Palestinian civilian infrastructure and the only open escape routes has led to the death of over 10,000 Palestinians, 4,104 of them children, 2,641 women and 611 elderly. Both sides have suffered a tragedy, yet this conflict remains profoundly asymmetrical. Why is Israel conducting such a disproportionate response and willing to commit war crimes in the process? Some have pointed to the expansionist, racist, dehumanising and fascist-leaning nature of the Zionist Israeli state (which many Jews are firmly against). Indeed, I have made this point myself in a previous article. But, the reason behind this heinous oppression and conflict and subsequent Western support might be far more black and white. One that is repeated time and time again through the annals of history. It’s all about fossil fuels.
I recently read a fascinating article by Rachel Donald (read it here), where she highlighted a recent UN UNCTAD study that found that underneath the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), such as Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip, there are vast reservoirs of oil and natural gas. Studies have found this territory contains 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil. All of this is worth around $524 billion! However, as Donald points out, the UN report questions Israel’s “national right” to these resources and argues they should be shared among local parties, especially as most of these reserves are in formally Palestinian-held territory, which Israel has occupied under deeply questionable means. Despite this, Israel has for decades been the only nation profiting off of the regional gas and oil fields it effectively stole from Palestine. They even refuse to supply Palestine with natural gas or let them extract it, as Israel is worried it would fund terrorism.
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Like the open-air concentration camps, the massive military presence and apartheid state Israel…
