Israeli Construction on Occupied Land
This sub-category refers to the participation of Israeli and international corporations in establishing Israeli housing and infrastructure projects on occupied Palestinian and Syrian land. Such projects effectively serve a dual purpose: annexing land and resources to Israel, and cutting off the local occupied population from the same.
The jurisdiction of settlements in the West Bank comprises over 2.2 million dunams (550,000 acres) in Area C, around 40% of the entire West Bank. The construction of settlements, industrial zones, and an Israeli road system - the use of which is forbidden for Palestinian residents - occupies hundreds of thousands of dunams to which Palestinians have limited access, if any at all, bolstering the fragmentation of Palestinian space. The roads and the settlements thus become part of a broader system of segregation and control, including special permits, walls, and checkpoints.
The Israeli construction industry in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories comprises contractors, planners, real estate dealers and realtors, project financiers, and suppliers of materials, security, and maintenance services to the construction sites.