The price of property in the West Bank is rocketing beyond the reach of most local businesses and homeseekers, pushed up by a weak US dollar and Israeli control of large chunks of the territory, a World Bank report published yesterday says.
The 41-page report cites local government data from the commercial and political center of Ramallah as saying the value of prime downtown commercial plots has doubled each year since 2005, hitting around US$4,000 per square meter at present.
Israel, citing the need to prevent Palestinian attacks inside Israel or on Jewish settlers in the West Bank, has placed large swaths of the Palestinian land and roads under its control off limits to Palestinians. It also maintains a complex network of checkpoints on roads that remain open to West Bankers.
PHOTO: AP
That leaves the vast majority of Palestinians chasing land in the remaining 41 percent of the territory, which is home to at least 90 percent of the population, the World Bank said.
“As a result, land prices are shooting up and in certain towns are becoming prohibitive for all but high value commercial activities, or high rise apartment buildings,” it said.
“Residential development is crowding out other economic activities on scarce plots available for development, yet there remains a housing shortage,” the report said.
The report does not cover the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated in 2005 and largely sealed off after the Islamic militant Hamas movement seized power there last year.
In addition to the Israeli squeeze on the West Bank, the World Bank said, property prices there are being nudged up by the many Palestinians living abroad and sending money home, some of it slated for investment.
“The real value of domestic cash savings, usually in US dollars or Jordanian dinars, are threatened by the falling dollar, creating pressure to convert these cash savings into stable investments,” the report said. “With few profitable options in the productive sectors, much capital is invested in land, putting added pressure on prices.”
The World Bank report concludes that little can be done to increase the stock of land available until the Israelis and Palestinians end their conflict.
“Ultimately, the restrictions on access to land [under Israeli control] will only be resolved with the final resolution of the peace process and the end of the occupation,” it said.
The renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at a US-hosted conference last November was supposed to have produced a final peace deal by the end of this year, but the sides have acknowledged that target is unreachable. With Israel in the throes of forming a new government and US presidential elections just around the corner, change seems unlikely anytime soon.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS