RAMALLAH, April 12, 2010 (WAFA)- An Oxfam project is helping farmers in the West Bank's 'Area C', where politics is preventing many from making a living off their own land, Reliefweb International published.

A report said: “The building of the new Palestinian Agricultural Ministry's office in Jiftlik isn't very new. In fact, it's a one room, rundown old shack in the middle of a dusty field. The office's generator is used to power the computer (there is no other form of electricity here) and a standing fan creates a distracting noise that makes one wonder how any work can get done at all.”

Looking around at the barren landscape it quickly becomes apparent that work here, in fact, rarely does get done. Not for lack of will, but from lack of means. 'This area faces a lot of problems,' Awad Daraghmeh, an agronomist with the Agricultural Ministry explains. 'The purpose of opening this office is to offer support for the farmers, but it is very difficult for the Palestinian Authority to have any real control.' He continues to tell me that the Ministry is not allowed to invest in any building or rehabilitation projects in the area as a result of the Israeli Civil Administration's tight control of this part of the occupied West Bank, known as 'Area C.' 'Most of the farmers throughout this region are living in tents. They have no water, no electricity, no paved roads or grazing lands - we can't even build new schools,' Daraghmeh adds.

Jerusalem has long been considered the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but far away from the tensions of the crowded Old City streets, Area C is also vital to Palestinian statehood and self-sufficiency. It is commonly known as the 'Palestinian breadbasket', situated on 61 percent of the West Bank and 95 percent of the Palestinian Jordan Valley's most fertile, arable land, the report added.

Despite being classified as Palestinian land under the Oslo Accords, which called for Israel to transfer complete control over the territory to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 1999, Area C has never switched hands. As a result, planning, zoning, and building remain at the sole discretion of the Israeli Civil Administration, which has issued a freeze on building permits for the Palestinians who live here, the report concluded.