A fifteen-year agreement was signed yesterday between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which will allow the distribution of electricity to Palestinians in the West Bank and the construction of four power plants.
"The historic agreement would free the Palestinian electricity sector from decades of complete Israeli control"said Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the AP Civil Affairs Agency.
In practice, an economic reality in the energy sector, new and independent, would arise for the Palestinian Authority, reducing the restrictions on the supply of electricity, with the consequent strengthening of economic stability: a new era in economic relations between the two parties could therefore be launched.
Almost 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank currently rely on Israel for the distribution of electricity, together with neighboring Jordan, which supplies the same in the Jericho area, in the Jordan River valley.
The agreement, however, "will not allow" its application in the Gaza Strip, whose 2 million inhabitants suffer from frequent Blackout due to severe fuel shortages and ongoing disputes between Gaza's rulers and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority
Essentially, the agreement would include a debt of NIS 915 million on the part of the Palestinian Authority, for the use of energy by the Israel Electric Corp (IEC), owned by the State of Israel, also taking over the distribution of electricity for the Palestinians of the West Bank. The IEC, in turn, will sell the energy to Palestinian Electricity Transmission Company LTd. (PETL) across four plants.
(photo: IDF)
