In recent months, horrific videos have emerged from the conflict zone in Gaza showing Israeli troops looting the properties of Palestinians who fled their brutal assault. Soldiers can be seen smiling at the camera and showing off watches, jewelry, cash and even rugs and sports jerseys that they had stolen from Palestinian homes. Historical objects stolen from Gaza were even displayed in the Knesset.
While similar acts of looting by Russian soldiers in Ukraine have been well documented and mocked, the international media has paid little attention to the Israeli looting of Gaza.
Some may find it hard to believe that well-paid soldiers from a rich country would engage in such crimes, but to the Palestinian people this is hardly surprising. The scenes in these videos are strongly reminiscent of what Palestinians saw happening to their properties as they fled ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces during the 1948 Nakba.
As Israeli historian Adam Raz describes in his recent book, Looting of Arab Property in the War of Independence, Jewish fighters and civilians looted everything from jewelry, books, and embroidered robes to food and livestock, furniture, kitchen utensils and even tiles.
Once established, the State of Israel continued to rob Palestinians on a larger scale, seizing their land and property. Palestinian natural resources, including water, have also been plundered. Today, the war in Gaza serves as a convenient cover for another large-scale theft; this time, Israel seeks to plunder offshore maritime gas reserves that are owned by the State of Palestine.
In late October, Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure announced that it had granted natural gas exploration concessions to Israeli and foreign companies in areas that significantly overlap Gaza’s maritime borders.
It goes without saying that Israel, as occupier, has no right to grant licenses in areas over which it does not have sovereignty.
Palestine is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has declared its maritime boundaries in accordance with these principles.
Israel has not signed UNCLOS. It also does not recognize the State of Palestine and recently reiterated its position by voting in the Knesset to “oppose unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state” despite growing calls globally, including from the from the United States, its main sponsor, in favor of unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state. two-state solution.
The combination of these positions gave Israel a pretext to not recognize Palestine’s maritime borders and to expropriate the resources of these areas. Of course, these Israeli claims do not make its actions legal.
One has to wonder why foreign companies, including Italy’s Eni, Britain’s BP and Dana Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Korea National Oil Corporation, decided to continue their participation in this deal, especially amid the ongoing Israeli campaign. against what the International Court of Justice said. identified as a plausible case of genocide.
On February 8, four human rights organizations in Israel and Palestine – Adalah, Al Mezan, Al-Haq and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued a joint press release regarding gas exploration licenses granted in the occupied waters of Palestine.
They announced that they had sent a letter to the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, demanding the cancellation of the award and the associated tender. They also said they had sent legal notices to Eni, Dana Petroleum and Israel Ratio Petroleum, asking them not to undertake any licensing-related activities.
“You should be aware that the International Criminal Court is currently actively investigating international crimes committed in the territory of the State of Palestine and that it has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute any person it deems responsible for committing crimes. war crimes, including pillage. . Complicity in war crimes like pillaging is also a serious criminal offense and companies may be subject to individual criminal liability… Complicity in violations (of international humanitarian law) can also expose companies like yours – as well as your managers and staff – at the risk of civil prosecution. actions for damages,” the notices warned.
In addition to the illegality of the gas tender under international law, it is important to highlight here the involvement of the European company Eni. Its involvement in the Israeli gas exploration project contradicts the EU’s long-standing position that “all agreements between the State of Israel and the European Union must unequivocally and explicitly state their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
The Israeli announcement of the award of the licenses came just over a year after the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian and Israeli energy ministers on June 15, 2022. regional cooperation in gas extraction. This happened just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid efforts by the EU to divest from Russian gas.
Interestingly, the MoU omitted the territoriality clause that the EU committed to include in order to protect Palestinian territories and waters from exploitation by illegal activities. Members of the European Parliament raised this issue with the European Commission a week after signing the memorandum of understanding.
The European Commission’s response dismissed the importance of the omission on a rather technical point – saying that the MoU was non-binding in nature and therefore “no territorial clause on applicability is deemed necessary . However… the implementation of such a memorandum of understanding will not apply in any way to the occupied Palestinian territory, which implies that Israeli natural gas supplies, in accordance with the implementation of the memorandum of understanding, will not cannot come from resources originating from the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. .”
In this context, two questions deserve to be asked of the European Commission: has this omission encouraged the violation of Palestinian rights by Israel and what will be the fate of Eni’s involvement in the project?
This development also comes at a critical time when EU countries have adopted highly problematic positions on the war in Gaza, supporting the “right of self-defense” of an occupier against the occupied and sending weapons to the forces of ‘occupation.
Furthermore, EU states have suspended financial support for UNRWA, virtually the only lifeline for Gaza’s starving residents.
Although the West’s recent stance against violent and illegal settlers in the West Bank is a step in the right direction, the failure to stem Israel’s blatant attempts to plunder Palestinian resources with the help of European companies will only further reinforce the growing cynicism. in the countries of the South on the duplicity of the West in the application of international law.
The EU could right some of the wrongs it has committed by helping the Palestinians exploit their natural resources. Amid rumors about Gaza’s post-conflict reconstruction and who should foot the bill, it is important to consider the vast gas resources in Gaza’s waters as an important financial resource that can be used to ensure a prosperous future for the Palestinian people. The EU can play a key role in helping the Palestinians develop and benefit from these resources, as is their sovereign right.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.