Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah picking olives in the town of Taqoa near Bethlehem. (WAFA photo/Maan Khalifeh) 

RAMALLAH, October 25, 2017 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah lashed out at Israel on Wednesday accusing it of undermining and obstructing Palestinian development and the economy.

“Israel aims at undermining our potential and resources, marginalizing Palestinian productive base and obstructing the ability of our national economy to grow and develop," he said at the 17th annual olive picking festival held in the town of Taqoa, in the Bethlehem district.

He stressed that Israeli control over Area C, which makes more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank, “causes big financial losses annually and impedes chances of development, as confirmed by international reports.”

“Today we celebrate together another olive picking season and thousands of stories of steadfastness and challenges by our people as they protect their land and insist on staying while remaining steadfast despite of the Israeli occupation that surrounds our country with the wall and settlements, isolates and confiscates our lands and controls our water resources and despite the attacks by the settlers targeting the land and olive trees by burning, uprooting and destroying them.”

Hamdallah hailed whom he called “the guardians of the land in the areas marginalized and threatened by the wall and the settlements,” whom he said insist on cultivating their land, defend its harvest and confront the practices of the Israeli occupation. "You bear the message of truth, justice and steadfastness in the face of destruction, displacement, settlement schemes and land confiscation," he said. “Olive trees are a symbol of our attachment to the land and our just right to live in its fold."

The prime minister said that with the decline in foreign aid, the government has focused on rationalizing expenditures, efficient management of natural resources, maximizing own resources and establishing effective and modern legal and institutional frameworks and infrastructures to regulate work in all sectors.

He said: "In the olive sector, work is focused on raising its quality and productive capacities and competitiveness. We have started to reclaim and rehabilitate agricultural land and to build roads. We have continued the project of greening Palestine, modernizing irrigation systems and developing water resources, in addition to implementing projects in which revenues generated from production of irrigated agricultural crops are made available to families with ed income and projects for protection of the living standards of small olive growers. We have launched the National Strategy for the Olive Sector, and this year our country became a member of the International Olive Council.”

M.K.