Countless times I have driven down the long, winding road between Neve Tzuf and Ofarim in west Binyamin. It is one of the most beautiful routes in the country. This time, however, the journey was different. Instead of enjoying the incredible, breathtaking view of the Binyamin Hills, I spent it looking at electricity poles. They are easy to identify and carry a sign that I had never noticed before: The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock and the universal symbol for high voltage, a lightning bolt. Underneath the image, in English and Arabic are the words Jerusalem District Electric Company (JDECO).
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The discovery jolts me. These are Glatt kosher electricity poles that have received the authorization of the civil administration. They provide electricity to Palestinian villages and will soon carry voltage from the enormous solar farm that the Palestinian Authority has built between Neve Tzuf and Ofarim. So why does that frustrate me? Because instead of the civil administration penalizing JDECO for providing electricity to illegal buildings in Area C, the company is rewarded with authorization to advance huge projects. The company's growing debt to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has topped a billion shekels but that has not prevented the civil administration from approving JDECO's request to upgrade the electricity line between Israel and Jordan and to purchase more electricity from Jordan.
So, what is JDECO? The company has a long and twisted history. In the past, it was a Jordanian company but now it is a legal Israeli entity that has a license from the Electricity Authority and the Ministry of Energy to provide electricity to East Jerusalem, and the Jericho, Bethlehem, and Ramallah areas. In the past, the JDECO produced electricity at a power station in Shuafat in East Jerusalem, but 30 years ago it stopped independently producing electricity and is now a supplier of electricity purchased from the Israel Electric Corp and Jordan. The company's board of directors is composed of representatives of the municipalities to which it provides electricity: Jerusalem Bethlehem, Beit Jalla, Ramallah, al-Bireh, and Jericho.
Since 1967, JDECO has been a focal point of Palestinian political power and a symbol of Palestinian independence. Going back as far as 1981, the PLO has held a majority on the board of directors. Today one can say that JDECO serves in practice as a tool for the Palestinian Authority as it seeks the establishment of a Palestinian state. On the one hand, it assists the Palestinian Authority through legal means, with the authorization and encouragement of the Israeli civil administration, to progress toward energy independence, freeing itself from reliance on Israel. On the other hand, it provides electricity to the Palestinian Authority for illegal construction in Area C as part of the Palestinian plan supported by the European Union to establish a state unilaterally through facts on the ground. This is all happening far from the public eye without any debate on the significance of these measures and in particular without any clear and consistent, forward-looking government policy.
A chokehold
From Binyamin, we head south, to the northern entrance to Efrat. From Givat Hadagan, a rocky hilltop near the town, we look over the outskirts of El Hadr, a Palestinian village south of Bethlehem where there are dozens of illegal stone buildings, some of them three stories high that spill over from area A into Area C on Israeli state lands. From a distance between the buildings and the vines, an orange-colored crane soars as it works on what appears to be another illegal building. All this undisturbed, in full daylight. "A road to Tkoa was planned here, but because of the massive construction along the route, the road will not be built," says Menash Shmueli, field coordinator for the Regavim NGO. What we are seeing here is a chokehold on Efrat in order to prevent its continued development."
Shmueli shows us an aerial photograph from 2008 that proves that the 50 Illegal buildings that are now blocking our view are all new buildings that were not there at the time the image was taken. All of the buildings are connected to electricity provided by JDECO. This is electricity that is produced by the Israel Electric Corporation and then "purchased" by JDECO (which, as we have already mentioned, owes a billion shekels to the IEC). This electricity helps the Palestinian Authority take over more and more of Area C. Some of the connections seem to be "legal" connections, the rest are hooked up in a partisan fashion that creates a chaotic, snarled, and very dangerous tangle.
Regavim has issued a petition to the courts to demolish electric infrastructure on the grounds that it is illegal. The state answered that electric infrastructure will be demolished in accordance with security considerations. The petition was dismissed. What are these security considerations? Are they just an excuse for negligence, or are they bona fide security considerations? Various sources explain that the civil administration is afraid to cut entire neighborhoods off from the electricity supply as this could lead to legally constructed buildings being cut off from the network. And because taking that kind of step could lead to a petition by left-wing NGOs against the civil administration which is already overwhelmed with such petitions.
Moreover, the civil administration currently faces severe manpower shortages. There are only 15 inspectors covering this enormous area. The outgoing government promised to allocate another 46 tenures for inspectors for the civil administration, but these tenures years have yet to be manned due to bureaucratic obstacles. Moreover, crews carrying out the demolition of illegal Palestinian buildings often come under live fire and thus require a large military escort. The IDF forces on the ground are already swamped with security missions and as a result, enforcement often has to be postponed.
Hooking up to the neighbor's
Heading north from Efrat, we turn southeast toward the Judean desert. South of Tekoa and north of Ma'ale Amos, we stop at Kisan and Al-Maniyah, two Palestinian villages with extensive, illegal construction on their outskirts. Some of the houses are modest, but near a square in Al Maniyah, there are luxurious three-story villas. These two villages were defined in the Oslo Accords as being in Area A under full Palestinian Authority control, but dozens of illegal buildings have spilled over into Area C, which is under full Israeli control.
Aerial photographs show undeveloped land in Area A where the villages could have expanded to. But hey, if they can build undisturbed in Area C, then why not. Looking up at the clear blue skies and the tops of the electricity poles shows that here as well, it is JDECO that supplies electricity to the villages. In Al-Maniyah, another sign displays a European Union-funded project to provide electricity from photovoltaic cells. But for some reason, most of the solar panels have been vandalized by the village hooligans. The connection between JDECO electricity poles and the illegal buildings is made through a mesh of wires and transformers. Are these illegal connections put up by the villagers themselves?
We approach Mustafa, a resident of the village living in one of the illegal areas.
"Marhaba? How are you"
"Thank God," Mustafa replies in Hebrew. The conversation flows and he tells us that he has 10 children from two wives. We ask if they lack electricity in the village, and Mustafa replies they lack nothing.
"Where do you get your electricity from?"
"We get it from the East Jerusalem company (JDECO). We pay them every month. First you pay and then you get electricity. When the money we pay runs out, the company cuts off the electricity. Some people aren't connected to the company and instead, they connect to other houses and pay the neighbors."
Mustafa tells us that the civil administration only rarely intervenes in affairs in the village. "This house is a really big house on the road itself. So, they demolished it but usually, there are no problems here. We get on with the Civil Administration."
That being the case, it isn't hard to understand why illegal construction in Area C has become such an uncontrollable deluge. According to up-to-date figures, gathered by Regavim through a process of mapping the area and then comparing with aerial photos from over the years, the number of illegal Palestinian buildings in Area C currently stands up at 81,317. The number of illegal Israeli buildings in Area C is 4,382. Over the past year, 5,535 illegal Palestinian buildings were constructed in Area C, an increase of 80% on the previous year. In the Jewish sector, 406 illegal buildings were constructed in settlements or outposts, an increase of only 10%. All this at a time when there are only 350,000 Palestinians living in Area C, compared to 500,000 Jews. All these buildings are connected to electricity.
Do the Palestinians suffer from overcrowding or a lack of land? Anybody taking a look over the wide-open spaces and the nature of construction there will see that this is not the case. The figures prove this is not the case. The population density of Palestinians in the West Bank is 5.6. persons per dunam. In "little Israel," it is 10 persons per dunam. Moreover, 70% of Areas A and B are uninhabited. Thus, in most cases, illegal building is not a consequence of natural growth, but a clear effort by the Palestinian Authority to establish facts on the ground ahead of a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.
On the ground, the evidence of a guiding hand is clear. The Palestinian Authority, financed and supported by the Europeans, is building dirt roads and putting up electricity poles. Only then do the illegal buildings appear from out of nowhere. The exceptions are the Palestinian towns of Qalqilya and Tulkarm, where the massive overflow of illegal construction into Area C results from the available land for construction in Area A having been fully exhausted. The Civil Administration has given up in the face of the multi-story buildings being built illegally in these two towns. Everyone understands that sooner or later these buildings will be legalized. The Civil Administration is concentrating its efforts in more strategic locations, such as near main roads in the Jerusalem envelope, national parks, and IDF firing zones, and in destroying illegal construction in Jewish settler outposts.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) which is responsible for the civil administration and sits near military headquarters in Tel Aviv often hosts European representatives. The picture COGAT tries to paint is one of equal enforcement when it comes to illegal construction. The extreme gap between the scope of illegal Palestinian construction and illegal Israeli building is one COGAT doesn't seem to stress. Perhaps it is more convenient for COGAT to shut its eyes and see illegal Palestinian as natural growth and not a strategy by design. And perhaps when they give an account to the Europeans, they don't want to clash with the silver platter that supports the Palestinian takeover of Area C not just in words, but with a lot of cash.
From 2016 to 2018, the European Union provided 33 million euros in "humanitarian assistance" to Palestinians living in Area C. Another 2.5 million euros were designated for advancing plans to legalize 113 illegal Palestinian outposts in Area C. More than 30 million euros have been invested in infrastructure and agricultural development and 20 million were donated to legal assistance to prevent enforcement via legal assistance to persons who have received demolition orders. Instead of the State of Israel demanding that the European Union stop financing the illegal Palestinian Authority takeover of Area C, its hosts the EU representatives at COGAT. About a year ago, a COGAT delegation accompanied by Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej attended a convention of donor nations in Oslo with the aim of increasing aid to Palestinians.
Where's the money?
Let's go back to the issue of electricity in the Palestinian Authority. According to the Oslo Accords, the PA was supposed to develop energy independence. Israel agreed to provide it with electricity on a temporary basis but the temporary becomes permanent and the Palestinian Authority remains almost completely dependent on the IEC. Alongside JDECO, the Palestinian Electricity Transmission Company (PETL) and three small private Palestinian companies are responsible for providing electricity and collecting payment. Over the years, these companies accrued massive debt to the IEC.
These debts were accrued as the result of non-payment of electricity bills for public buildings and as a result of failure to collect debts, and electricity theft, which has become commonplace in the refugee camps. Wealthy families who are fourth-generation "refugees" don't pay for electricity. After disconnecting electricity countless times and a long legal battle, the Palestinian Authority and the Israel Electric Corporation reached an agreement over deduction of the debt from the taxes that Israel collects from goods imported to the PA. Today, the Palestinian Authority doesn't have a direct debt to the IEC as every month COGAT deducts 75 million shekels from clearing for the PA – of that sum, 38 million covers electricity consumption in Gaza, while the remainder covers electricity consumption in Judea and Samaria. Excluded from the calculation is electricity purchased by JDECO, which is what led to the – of accruement of a billion-shekel debt that basically constitutes an indirect debt of the Palestinian Authority to the Israel Electric Corp. So far, for political reasons, JDECO has refrained from legal action against the PA. JDECO has requested from the Israeli Ministry of Energy that it include that debt in the deduction agreement. Israeli sources explained to JDECO that they could not make any deduction without the PA's agreement. JDECO has been hesitant to take any action and the debt has swelled.
Turning off the switch
On October 6, the Israel Electric Corporation sent out a letter to all relevant authorities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority in which it declared that as of November 21. It would shut off the electricity supply to 36 different regions in the Palestinian Authority for six hours straight over 10 days throughout the winter.
COGAT understood that this would be an event with major ramifications and could lead to widespread unrest in the Palestinian territories. Israel is now pressuring the PA to reach a deduction agreement or pay its debt to the Israel Electric Corporation.
At the same time, since the Oslo Accords took effect, there have been several attempts to increase the amount of electricity supplied to the Palestinian Authority as JDECO is unable to meet growing demand. In 2016, the Europeans built four substations in Jenin, Nablus, Atarot, and Tarkumiya with the aim of increasing electrical production. The substations were connected to the IEC and have managed to significantly increase electricity supply, but due to internal transmission issues caused by decaying infrastructure, JDECO is unable to transmit its full potential. At the same time, a number of large solar farms have been built with European financing: For example, near Jericho, and between Neve Tzuf and Ofarim, and the Palestinians are seeking to build a power station in Jenin.
JDECO, which is engaged in illegal activities and owes the Israel Electric Corporation one billion shekels, is the company that won the tender to purchase electricity from the solar farms. It has also been awarded a license to upgrade the electricity line between Jordan and Israel and to increase the amount of electricity it purchases from Jordan to 80 megawatts.
JDECO is currently putting up electricity poles going up from the Jordan Valley to Ramallah, going through a large area between the Israeli communities of Kochav Hashashar and Ma'ale Michmash, an area that the Palestinian plan to take over through illegal construction. The electricity line that will aid their plans is now moving from the planning to execution stage, with, how surprisingly, the approval of the State of Israel.
At a ceremony in Jordan, PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the goal of the project was to enable the Palestinian Authority to completely free itself of energy dependence on Israel and from "Israeli extortion" as it worked toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Among those at the ceremony was JDECO CEO Hisham Omari.
Omari is a busy man. We wanted to meet with him in person. We went to JDECO's offices in Jerusalem. Among the colorful shops selling jalabiyas and keffiyehs, sits a large, impressive building that houses JDECO's offices. The security guard at the entrance wouldn't let us in. "There is no one available to speak to you right now," he explained to us. "The entire management is in Ramallah at the moment." Eventually, we got hold of Omari's mobile phone number, called him, and left a message. We never got a response. We sent our questions to JDECO's attorney, Anat Klein. There was no response there either.
"The biggest problem is that there is no clear policy," a senior Israeli electricity industry source tells us. "For years, there has been no proper debate with the relevant professional echelons on the issue of electricity in the Palestinian Authority. There is no proper plan for the future and no policy. All we do is put out fires."
***
We approached the Ministry of Energy, COGAT and the Civil Administration, in order to try and understand whether there is a policy on disconnecting illegally constructed buildings from the grid, and why no action has been taken against JDECO.
A joint statement issued by COGAT and the Civil Administration said: "In the past year, Civil Administration enforcement authorities carried out six enforcement actions against illegal electricity infrastructure throughout Judea and Samaria. With regard to enforcement against illegal construction in Area C - since the beginning of 2022 we have taken enforcement measures and demolished over 1,300 buildings, infrastructures, agricultural takeovers of state lands, illegal works etc."
The Civil Administration refused to provide exact data on the demolition of illegal buildings and the segmentation of enforcement measures into sectors (Israeli as opposed to Palestinian) and the years in which these measures were taken. However, sources we spoke to said some 90 percent of demolitions were of Palestinian buildings.
A spokesperson for the Israel Electric Corporation said: "JDECO's debt to the IEC currently stands at one billion shekels. In order to collect this debt, we have been forced to carry out disconnections in accordance with the law, and with the provision of advance notice. We have asked the finance and energy ministries to help us collect the debt. The IEC believes that the monthly deductions from the Palestinian Authority should be increased by 20-25 million shekels a month to cover JDECO's debt."
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