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The British Government regularly raises concerns regarding the Israeli building and
planning regime in Area C with the Israeli Government. The UK has also called publicly
on Israel to take steps towards the transfer of authority over Area C to the Palestinian
Authority. Palestinian development in Area C is essential for a sustainable Palestinian
economy, yet only 1% of Area C is zoned for Palestinian construction and a large portion
of this land is already built-up. The UK will therefore continue to press Israel to
ease the current restrictive permitting regime and to transfer control of Area C to
the Palestinian Authority as per the Oslo accords. The Israeli Non-Governmental Organisation
Peace Now has identified the building and demolition decisions in Area C. Between
2000 and 2007 the Israeli Civil Administration approved only 91 of 1,624 Palestinian
applications. During the same period Israeli settlers built over 18,000 homes in the
same area. We assess that this does not help efforts towards peace.
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