Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the additional costs resulting from Israeli border, access and planning controls to UK-funded development projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Mr Alan Duncan

No such assessment has been possible. UK aid helps to finance the Palestinian Authority’s fiscal deficit, which would significantly decrease if Israeli movement and access restrictions in the OPTs were lifted. The World Bank estimates that if Israeli restrictions were lifted in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank alone, the Palestinian economy would expand by more than a third and potentially would not require international donor assistance.