IF2002-05
ISRAEL'S ECONOMIC WAR
AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS
Although it is the political violence that reaches our television screens, Israel's economic onslaught against the Palestinians has also caused enormous damage. The huge disparities in power and wealth add to the frustration of the Palestinians and feed into the spiral of violence. These will have to be tackled soon, if the deepening conflict is ever to be resolved.
By Roger Riddel
Aby Holly, an elderly Palestinian farmer from Der El Balah, south of Gaza City, pointed to the spot where in 2000 his 16-year-old grandson, Abed El Kader, was shot dead by Israeli army sniper fire. He told me of the bulldozers that had flattened four wells, the main source of water for his crops.
Sixty miles away, I spoke to Abu Amjod, a former chairman of the village council in Zeta, a hillside village in the West Bank. He said that the day before Israeli soldiers had stopped a lorry carrying his eggs to market. They had smashed 2,000 trays, each containing 30 fresh eggs.
These are just two of the everyday stories of lives lost, incomes destroyed and livelihoods eroded. Although it is the political violence that reaches our television screens, Israel's economic onslaught against the Palestinians has also caused enormous damage. Since the latest intifada broke out last year, the economy of the Occupied Territories has imploded with a fierceness not seen since the 1967 war.
Much of the damage has been caused by the so-called closures - the decision by the Israeli authorities to prevent the normal flow of Palestinian people and goods in and out of the West Bank and Gaza.
Before the closures, over 110,000 Palestinian workers, more than 20 percent of the Palestinian workforce, were working in Israel. Most have lost their jobs.
At the same time, the flow of goods into the Palestinian Territories from Israel has slowed to a trickle and manufacturers and farmers have run out of supplies. About 50,000 workers have been sacked as a result.
In mid-February the Israeli authorities imposed a sea siege along the Gaza coastline. A further 6,000 people working in the fishing sector lost their employment.
The impact on the economy has been fearful. According to one United Nations source, economic output fell by a quarter during the first four months of the intifada. World Bank figures show that by the end of January 2001 unemployment had reached 30 percent. By March, this had increased to about 40 percent.
There are other factors, which in the longer term are even more damaging, in than they contribute to the permanent underdevelopment of the economy. Today it is the Israelis, not the Palestinians, who effectively control the land and determine economic policies of the Occupied Territories. The Palestinian authorities only have control of 18 percent of the West Bank and 65 percent of the Gaza Strip.
And the situation grows worse all the time, for the sway of the Palestinian authorities is being constantly undermined by the Israeli policy, despite the rhetoric, of creating new illegal settlements for Israelis within the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The inequality in power between the two populations is all too evident. The Israelis make it difficult for the Palestinians to drill new wells. During the hot summer months the only water supplier - the Israeli company, Mekorot - makes sure it supplies water to Israeli settlers in the West Bank. When water has to be rationed, it is the Palestinians who suffer.
The Palestinians cannot even benefit from their few economic advantages, such as lower wages. Palestinian manufacturers find it difficult to obtain the standards certificate they need to export goods to Israel, often because the Israel authorities fail to come to factories in the West Bank and Gaza to carry out the necessary inspection.
Even more remarkably, Israel fails to pay the tax it gathers for the Palestinian authorities in the unified free trade area. By the middle of March 2000, Israel still owed the Palestinians about £180 million in unpaid tax from the last financial year, along with about £230 million from previous years. Altogether, this comes to a staggering 60 percent of the total tax revenue of the Palestinian authorities for the year 2000.
There is a huge gap in living standards between the two countries. By the mid-1990s, the average income in Israel was already 11 times higher than the average income in the Occupied Territories. And the gap has been widening rapidly in recent years.
It is no wonder that these enormous disparities in power and wealth add to the frustration of the Palestinians and feed into the spiral of violence. The will have to be tackled soon, if this deepening conflict is ever to be resolved. Third World Network Features/IBON Features
Roger Riddle is Christian Aid's international director.