A/HRC/22/63 number of testimonies highlighted that the cutting off from water resources often precedes dispossession of lands for new settlement projects. 8. Impact on economic rights 89. The agricultural sector, considered the cornerstone of Palestinian economic development, has not been able to play its strategic role because of dispossession of land and the denial of access for farmers to agricultural areas, water resources and domestic and external markets. This has led to a continuous decline in the share of agricultural production in GDP and employment since 1967. 90. The expansion of settlements and the development of relevant infrastructure have eroded Palestinian agricultural assets. Dwindling water resources, high transaction and transport costs and shrinking markets have led to a decline in the size of agricultural holdings. It has also resulted in a shift from irrigated to less profitable rain-dependent crops and a decrease in productivity, given that the import of fertilizers into the West Bank is banned for Palestinians. Besides the demolitions carried out by the authorities, villagers suffer recurrent attacks from nearby settlements (especially during the olive harvest season), the destruction of trees, water installations and livestock, putting them under additional pressure to relinquish agricultural activities. 91. The wall has divided villages, cut off farmers from their lands and water and curtailed trade with traditional markets, stifling the local economy. One example of this pattern is the village of Nazelt Issa, where half of pre-existing businesses were destroyed to build the wall, while other activities closed down, given that most of their trade was with neighbouring villages now cut off by the wall. With few income-generating prospects left in the village, unemployment is high, and young people leave to seek work. 92. The mission was informed by testimony received that ―Israeli settlement agriculture is blooming‖. In the Jordan Valley, settlements set up in the 1960s and 1970s as farming communities on land formerly cultivated by Palestinians have developed into a hightechnology irrigation agricultural zone and become major contributors to Israeli exports of date palm fruits. In the central West Bank, many agricultural settlements have been developed over the past decade, cultivating olives and grapes for winemaking in Israel. Many Israeli cultivated areas correspond to lands that were cultivated by Palestinians until the second intifada (2000-2005). 93. The inability of the Palestinian economy to expand and offer opportunities, high unemployment rates and falling wages in the Palestinian labour market, inflation and increasing poverty are factors that drive Palestinians to seek employment in the settlements and in Israel, where wages are about twice as high as in the Palestinian private sector. A stringent system of permits and quotas that determines employment in Israel and the settlements lends itself to abuse by contractors and middlemen. Palestinians employed in the settlements work primarily in the manufacturing industry and the construction sector. Women are mostly engaged in domestic work and agriculture. 50 94. While wages might be higher, employment conditions in the settlements remain precarious. Workers claiming their rights are easily dismissed, and supervision of employers by the Israeli authorities in the settlements remains largely absent. In an audit conducted in June 2011, the State Comptroller noted the ―lack of substantial supervision and enforcement in the field of safety and hygiene‖, even in factories holding and using 50 International Labour Organization, ―The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories‖, June 2012 (available from www.ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/101stSession/reports/reportssubmitted/WCMS_181071/lang--en/index.htm), para. 87. 19