Palestine is a land with a long maritime tradition. Seventy years ago the Palestinian fishing fleet worked all over the eastern Mediterranean. With their fishing fleet now hemmed into a sea area 6 miles wide and 40 miles long the fishermen themselves are now reduced to just fishing to put what little fish they catch on their own family tables.
“AYYAM ZAMAN” is Arabic for the “old days”—a time before the Israeli military occupation. A time when fishermen fished freely off Gaza’s coast. The population of the strip swelled as a result of the Palestinian exodus during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Al Nakba. Gaza came under Egyptian rule until the 1967 Six Day War, when it was occupied and Israeli Military occupation usurped Gaza’s natural resources. This meant the end of self-sufficiency and ability to trade; and confiscation of water, which forced Palestinians to live on foreign aid.
In the Interim Agreement, signed by Israel and the PLO as part of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel undertook to allow fishing boats from Gaza to go some 20 nautical miles (about 37 kilometers) from the coastline, except for several buffer zones near the borders with Israel and Egypt, to which they were prohibited entry. In practice, however, Israel did not issue permits to all the fishermen who requested them, and allowed fishing up to a distance of 12 nautical miles.
Since the beginning of the second intifada (2000-2005), Israel has imposed harsh restrictions on freedom of movement to and from the Gaza Strip. The poverty rate has risen by more than 40 percent.
In 2005 Israel illegally reduced the 20 nautical mile limit which was established under the Oslo Accord to 10 nautical miles. In September of that year, Israel completed implementation of its Unilateral Disengagement Plan from the Gaza Strip. The military withdrawal and the dismantling of the settlements led to considerably improved freedom of movement for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. However, Israel retained control of the crossings from Gaza into Israel, with access to the West Bank, as well as Gaza’s air space and territorial waters.
Following the abduction of Gilad Shalit, on 25 June 2006, Israel prohibited Gazan fishermen from going to sea for four months, and when fishing was again allowed, the distance was reduced to 6 nautical miles from shore. During the course of the so called Operation Cast Lead, December 2008-January 2009, fishing ceased entirely due to the massive presence of Israeli naval military forces. When fishing was resumed after the war, the army reduced the distance to about three nautical miles (some 5.5 kilometers). However, since 2009 Israeli forces have continued to attack Palestinian fishermen even within the three miles. After the ceasefire negotiated in late November 2012, the Israelis have relaxed the limit to six miles but as the fishermen need to target migratory fish species in deep water, this is only a slight improvement on the three mile limit.
Palestinians are pushing for a complete rollback to the twenty mile limit of the Oslo Accord. According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, on an almost daily basis, fishermen are subject to being shot at, which results in deaths and injuries among crew. Their vessels are often attacked with powerful water cannon, arrested, unnecessarily inspected, humiliated, and their boats and fishing equipment are often confiscated. Not surprisingly, data from the Fishery Department of the Ministry of Agriculture show a decrease in the amount of fish production during the last five years, from 3,000 tons in 2008 to 1,500 today, but there are still 40,000 people who need to live out of it.
Palestine as a State Observer in the United Nations and thus in FAO and in this respectful committee, Palestine would anxiously like to be a contracting party at the GFCM. However as I mentioned above of the occupation illegitimate control over Palestine natural resources including our sea and fishery which form a great obstacle for compliance.
Therefore I call upon the International Community to support Palestine to Re-gain its governance for its legitimate rights on its natural resources including Fishery.
Thank You
