World Bank report says illegal Israeli settlements crush Palestinian economy

There are more signs that Europe is trying to bring heavy pressure on the Israeli occupation, with the silent support of the Obama administration.

Here are two recent developments. First, an important new World Bank report on the Palestinian economy under siege by settlements, which now control 2/3 of the West Bank lands Oslo was supposed to hand over to Palestinians. Second, evidence that the EU’s prospective settlement guidelines are biting the Israeli establishment over the possibility that the country will be excluded from a major European research initiative unless it declares that the settlements are not Israel.

First, this has been all over the Israeli press and in the Wall Street Journal too, though I have not seen it in the New York Times: The World Bank has issued an important report saying that the Palestinian economy is stymied by the fact that Palestinians can’t even get to most of their lands in Area C, the largest portion of the West Bank under the Oslo accords, and lands Palestinians were supposed to control.