Palestine’s $500 Billion Reason To Be Subjugated
Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash
This can’t be a coincidence.
by Will Lockett
By now, you have probably heard about what is going on in Palestine. We have been told that the mass offensive on Palestine by Israel is in self-defence after Hamas attacked and killed 1,400 Israelis. Yet, the mass bombing of Palestinian civilian infrastructure and the only open escape routes has led to the death of over 10,000 Palestinians, 4,104 of them children, 2,641 women and 611 elderly. Both sides have suffered a tragedy, yet this conflict remains profoundly asymmetrical. Why is Israel conducting such a disproportionate response and willing to commit war crimes in the process? Some have pointed to the expansionist, racist, dehumanising and fascist-leaning nature of the Zionist Israeli state (which many Jews are firmly against). Indeed, I have made this point myself in a previous article. But, the reason behind this heinous oppression and conflict and subsequent Western support might be far more black and white. One that is repeated time and time again through the annals of history. It’s all about fossil fuels.
I recently read a fascinating article by Rachel Donald (read it here), where she highlighted a recent UN UNCTAD study that found that underneath the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), such as Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip, there are vast reservoirs of oil and natural gas. Studies have found this territory contains 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil. All of this is worth around $524 billion! However, as Donald points out, the UN report questions Israel’s “national right” to these resources and argues they should be shared among local parties, especially as most of these reserves are in formally Palestinian-held territory, which Israel has occupied under deeply questionable means. Despite this, Israel has for decades been the only nation profiting off of the regional gas and oil fields it effectively stole from Palestine. They even refuse to supply Palestine with natural gas or let them extract it, as Israel is worried it would fund terrorism.
Like the open-air concentration camps, the massive military presence and apartheid state Israel has made isn’t a form of terrorism and isn’t supported by oil and gas money…
Donald effortlessly demonstrates why this war could be driven by fossil fuel greed in Israel. Her analysis is fantastic and to the point, but it is through a regional lens, not a global lens. When you zoom out, it’s easy to see why Israel is so willing to trample on the Palestinian people to get to this tainted natural resource, and it isn’t just for their economic gain. This isn’t a better viewpoint than Donald’s, just different.
Firstly, we have to understand why natural gas, particularly gas that is from a Western-allied nation, is so essential today.
This has two parts. Russian and half-arsed climate action.
Back in 2021, the EU imported 83% of its natural gas, and Russia made up 50% of these imports. In fact, the EU was the leading importer of Russian gas, accounting for 82% of Russian gas exports in 2021. Once the war in Ukraine kicked off, the EU needed to quickly phase itself off Russian gas. Not only was their use of it funding the Kremlin’s war machine, but it was also leaving them open to energy blackmail from Putin. By the end of 2022, they had successfully reduced Russian gas imports down to only 10%, replacing them mostly with gas shipped from the US via LNG ships rather than pipelines like Russia. The rapid restructuring was only possible thanks to the LNG ships, as this already existing infrastructure was incredibly flexible and could run at a far higher capacity than it used to.
Now, Russia and the US are the world’s leading gas exporters, and this extra US demand puts enormous pressure on the US gas industry, which isn’t used to supplying such vast amounts. As such, US gas companies are looking to expand and tap new resources to meet the new, growing European demand.
There is the other side of this equation: half-arsed climate action. Take Germany; rather than continue to use their fleet of amazing nuclear power stations, which have carbon emissions lower than solar power, they opted to entirely phase them out and replace them with natural gas and coal. Why? They have a weird aversion to nuclear power, despite the statistics saying it is by far the best power option for them (read my article about this here). They wanted to replace the lost capacity with primarily natural gas, as it is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and, as such, is considered a “transition fuel.” What’s more, thanks to pipelines from Russia, they could quickly adopt this cheap-to-build and relatively clean fuel. Sadly, that didn’t go to plan, thanks to Russia, and they now have to use even dirtier coal power as well as gas power to flesh out their energy grid.
Many countries in the West, Middle East and Asia are doing the same thing and relying on gas to reduce their overall emissions. This is obviously not a great idea regarding planetary health, but they are doing it nonetheless. As such, natural gas is one of the few fossil fuels with a stable future, as demand is set to stay pretty steady for at least another decade, if not more. This continued demand means that the natural gas industry needs to substantially expand and invest in more gas fields to supply demand until at least 2050.
With both of these factors in mind, the natural gas under Palestine looks incredibly strategically important for the future. Especially when you realise that global fossil fuel reserves, including natural gas, will likely be wholly depleted as early as 2060. Whichever nation has control over this resource will have a distinct advantage in the near future, as they could use gas power for longer than anyone else and avoid having to invest as much into renewable infrastructure and keep the political and energy industry status quo (which will help whoever is in power stay in power).