STIRLING PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
PALESTINE;
END THE ECONOMIC WAR!
WHY THE PEACE-PROCESS ISN’T WORKING
PALESTINE
ECONOMIC WAR
Economic activity is an essential part of a state, and in limiting and destroying such activity whenever possible, Israel undermines their supposed advocation of a two-state solution. The Occupied Palestinian Territories has become an economic prison, ghettoised by the labyrinth of walls and barriers, fragmenting Palestinian communities and restricting the movement of labour and goods.
The illegal wall and the barriers and roads connecting the illegal settlers in the OPT function as a means to control and limit economic activity, at the same time enabling Israel to illegally annex vital resources and land upon which Palestinians live. Such controls resulting from the wall include a buffer zone (averaging between 150-200km) which forbids land development and construction in the most fertile parts of the supposed ’Palestinian State’. The occupation has led to the construction of a large prison of economic suppression and injustice where the Palestinian economy is captive and subservient to the Israeli economy and thus so is nearly every aspect of the lives of those in the OPT. Under such conditions it is impossible to conceive of a free Palestinian state and instead of leading to peace the deficit of justice will inevitably lead the legitimate discontent of the Palestinians growing ultimately into undesirable anomic reactions.
There are a number of factors constraining economic activity in the OPT, namely the occupation itself as well as the role of the ‘legitimate’ face of Israel but principally the most dominant is the wall and its subsequent barriers. Despite a border of about 360km, according to local campaign groups the wall will be 730km long[1], while information from a UN report say its 670km long but this excludes road protection[2] which is ultimately just as restricting. Israel claims that the $3.4billion wall is just a temporary structure and for security, but it is essential that these naïve assumptions are contemptuously refuted as the international community must reject the illegal wall in its entirety as its consequence will be even more insecurity for Palestine and as a result Israel. The wall has been used to annex land, lock in the Illegal Settlers and strangle the economy of the OPT, only serving to inflame the situation rather than improve it.
The wall, illegally under international law, will cut deeply into the West Bank, placing 10.1% of its territory behind the wall. It must be noted that this annexes the most fertile part of the West Bank and cuts off even more Palestinians from their farms, jobs and services, for example 500,000 Palestinians live within one kilometer strip of the barrier according to the UN report by OCHA. According to the World Bank, with only 209km completed this still traps12,000 Palestinians between the wall and the green line. Using information from 2003, if all sections of the wall were completed 17.8% of the population will be behind the wall.[3] It must be remembered that deep within the West Bank some of the roads, along with the road-blocks as well as the Illegal Settlements add to the amount of the OPT cut off.
An example of the wall affecting Palestinians economically can be seen in the farming village of Jayyus in the Qalqiliya Governorate and to the west of Nablus. In the ‘bread basket’ of the West Bank the wall departs from the green line by 16km according to the local mayor. This is to accommodate the Illegal Settlers who live to the west of Jayyus and to the north-east of Qalqiliya. The wall annexes 70% of the Palestinian farmers land which is the biggest olive oil and vegetable producing region, for some farmers the barrier will wipe out 75% of their income. Behind the wall on the side where the Illegal Settlers occupy Palestinian land are 6 wells; 931 hectares of fertile land; 2,000 guava trees -each with an annual yield of 100 kilograms of fruit- and 12,000 olive trees.[4]
When speaking to the local group fighting against the wall we were told of a number of restrictions placed upon the farmers, such as their inability to sell their produce to Nablus. This leads to them selling their produce too cheaply in the local villages. There are two gates but as a number of farmers don’t have green permits they have been unable to access their land. At the time of OCHA’s report the gates opening times were limited, but very recently Israel told the farmers that the southern gate will be closed and only open for once a year. Even with the restrictions this created massive problems for the farmers, one example was a doctor having to give an injection through the fence and because it took so long to get two children who were ill to the hospital they died.[5] The restrictions have increased the transport costs and labour-time massively for farmers, and this will obviously increase variable costs and decrease productivity, in one instance a farmers journey had increased from half a kilometer to 40km under certain circumstances. Another example of agricultural destruction is in Beit Hanoun where 50% of its land has been destroyed according to OCHA, furthermore, the closure of Nablus resulted in the vegetable market revenue dropping by 90%, and NIS dropping from 5.19 million to 509,290.
A case-study from the UN’s OCHA report states; forty-five percent of Palestinian agricultural land is planted with olive trees and many local Palestinian communities in the West Bank are dependent on the olive harvest to survive. The 2004 harvest was particularly important as it was the high yield year. Israel pledged to assist the Palestinian farmers during the harvest by expanding opening hours of barrier gates and additional security for Palestinian farmers from Israeli settler harassment. However, access is necessary throughout the year to ensure a successful harvest. It has been increasingly difficult for farmers to care for their land during the year because of access restrictions, changes in gate operations and the rejection of valid permits (170 in Jayyus). Due to lack of adequate roads and restrictions to travel on Israeli roads travel time for farmers had increased to 8-10km extra through hilly terrain inaccessible to vehicles. The harvest was also damaged by the farmers being harassed by the illegal settlers. Furthermore, in the Bethlehem Governorate, two barrier gates were announced open for the harvest, however, none were open during the harvest time.
The problem of constraints upon farmers to produce and distribute food as a consequence of the wall is inflamed by the decline of income and savings of Palestinians. Since the Intifada began, Palestinians have reduced the number of meals consumed; real food consumption per capita fell by 25-30%. To cope, in some instances Palestinians used extreme coping mechanisms such as withdrawing children from schools. In 2003, far fewer Palestinians coped by reducing consumption. Only 13% had savings, compared with 70% in 2001, as of consequence the reliance on humanitarian assistance increased. 39% of Palestinians are dependent of food aid whilst in some areas it is 90% of the population.[6]
Thus the wall affects the agriculture sector of the Palestinian economy, but the occupation has deeply damaged the economy even further mainly from a growth in unemployment, declining incomes from those employed and the loss of property caused by Israeli Defense Forces. Unemployment rose from 74,000 in 2000 to 238,000 in 2004, 32.6% in the OPT. One of the most startling figures is the rising poverty level in Gaza, where in 2006 poverty is predicted to rise to 72%, but as this is based upon 2003 conditions it is expected that these are an underestimate.[7] According to the World Bank 16% of the OPT and a quarter of Gazan’s live in deep poverty. Between 2000 and 2002 the Israeli occupation resulted in $1.7 billion of infrastructure being destroyed.[8]
A clear example of the occupation damaging communities economies can be found with Bethlehem where the ghettoised religious city’s historical road to Jerusalem is blocked. Urban Bethlehem is surrounded by a combination of nine Israeli settlements, a stretch of the barrier, roads restricted for Israelis only and a multitude of checkpoints, earth mounds and roadblocks. Approximately 78 physical obstacles surround Bethlehem today and 26% of roads have restricted access. These restrictions on movement have devastated what should be a busy tourist area, and the business district around Rachel’s Tomb has seen a devastating collapse in business with 72 out of 80 business’s closed or relocated since 2002. Tourism in the city centre has declined drastically, with a fall in the monthly average of tourists visiting Bethlehem falling from 91,726 in 2000 to 7,249 in 2004. The number of tourist buses arriving monthly has also fallen from 2,742 to 138, and the number of hotel workers has fallen from 393 to 95, both within that same period.[9]
The economic decline in Bethlehem has hit the area so bad that 10% of the Christian community have left the West Bank. Israel have a deliberate and Machiavellian policy of pressured emigration by hindering the economy and the way Palestinians make a living. As a result of the wall a number of farms have already been abandoned and this usually means the settlers expropriating the land. This tactic of pressuring Palestinians to emigrate or at least move to a different part of Palestine is sometimes far more direct.
Near Bethlehem a village near the green line called Al Walaja has been declared ‘illegal’ as the barrier cuts through the village and hence placing part of it inside the Jerusalem Municipality, but the residents have not been issued Jerusalem ID cards. The Palestinian Monitoring Group reports that 53 of the houses have been issued with demolition orders and 17 have been destroyed.[10]
The Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip is being hailed as a progressive step on the ‘road-map to peace’, but economically, as already mentioned Palestinians living within Gaza have a bleak future. The World Bank states that even after a withdrawal both poverty and unemployment will increase, and this will not improve if Israel keep their restrictions upon Gazans in place. Palestinians living in Gaza face massive difficulties in moving, and this will undoubtedly remain the same after the withdrawal. Under the Oslo accords Palestinians were permitted to fish 20 nautical miles off the Gaza coast, but in 2004 Israel limited this to 6 nautical miles, no fishing was permitted along 40% of the coastline. It seems that instead of just maintaining this, Israeli officials were considering building a barrier along the coastline. Gaza would become a prison, economically constrained and cut off from the rest of the Palestine that will feature in the ’two-state solution’. Due to the ‘ghettoisation’ of Gaza, the number of Palestinians working within Israel has dropped dramatically from 29,865 on the eve of the intifada to 1,428 in 2004[11], this is common throughout the OPT.
As a part of the Oslo agreement, Israel was obliged to allow Palestinian workers to enter Israel freely. This was under the Economic Protocol; signed as the economic appendix of the Oslo agreements were in exchange for the above obligation Israel enforces a customs union on the OPT. By 2004 the number of Palestinians working in Israel dropped by more than 67%, affecting the earning potential of Palestinians in comparison to Israelis with a disparity of 82% for the West Bank.[12] While Palestine do not get benefits from the agreement, Israel uses it to take the Palestinian economy hostage to its own. In 2000, imports from and via Israel represented 73% of total imports into the OPT, while exports to Israel represented 92% of total exports from the OPT.
“The Palestinians’ ability to work, produce and earn income has been severely limited and as a result Palestinians have become deeply dependent upon humanitarian assistance coming in the form of foreign money. At first glance this humanitarian assistance is beneficial to Palestinians; however, Israel makes a constant economic gain from this assistance and has a vested interest in keeping the Palestinians dependent on foreign aid. Whenever Palestinians import goods using this foreign aid, they must either buy from Israeli companies or buy from international companies and pay customs to the Israeli government. Even if goods from Jordan or Egypt might be available at cheaper prices than those in Israel, administrative hurdles placed by Israel on the movement of goods and customs force Palestinians to buy from the very companies of their occupiers.”[13]
When it comes to utilities (such as water, electricity and phone services), Israel still controls utilities in the OPT and in 2004 alone, confiscated $15.8 million from the aid sent to the OPT for utility bills owed by Palestinian municipalities to Israeli companies. A recent report by the World Bank showed that Israel charges exorbitant prices for these utilities and despite the low income of the average Palestinian compared to an Israeli, Palestinians actually pay more for electricity than Israelis.
Effectively, foreign aid to the OPT perpetuates the situation in which the Palestinians are a nation of consumers who are unable to produce and unable to compete with the Israeli economy. The Israeli companies and government are the ones who reap the profits, while the international community pays the bills. Furthermore, the humanitarian foreign aid to the OPT relieves Israel of the need under international law to face its responsibility for destroying the Palestinian economy.
To conclude, the Israeli occupation of Palestine has been ultimately responsible for soaring deprivation and hindering economic development. The OPT economy has became subservient to the Israeli economy, and instead of just securing itself from attacks the wall has secured Israel’s own economic interests for its own development, or rather disabling the Palestinian economy from developing. By hindering movement of labour and goods, it has led to Israeli goods having an advantage. Also, important resources, such as the 37 water wells isolated behind the wall, have been annexed by Israel. If anything this highlights the necessity of treating the injustices of the occupation as the only means in which peace can be achieved as the current ‘solution’ will only aggravate the crisis in the future, and as the wall is an imprint of the occupation it has became a metaphorical barrier blocking the real road to peace. The current peace-plan that Sharon supports will not lead to a viable Palestinian state, it will only lead to more misery and more violence on both sides, the only way this can be prevented is if the occupation ends and the wall comes down.
[1] www.stopthewall.com
[2] The Humanitarian Impact of the West Bank Barrier on Palestinian Communities, March 2005, OCHA
[3] Palestine Monitor ing Group Trend Analysis, Israeli Separation Wall Activity Update December 10, 2003
[4] The Humanitarian Impact of the West Bank Barrier on Palestinian Communities, March 2005, OCHA
[5] Programme of Assistance to Palestinian People - in cooperation with the UN
[6] Review of the Humanitarian Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 2004, OCHA, United Nations
[7] Gaza on the Edge; A Report on the Deteriorating Humanitarian Situation in the Gaza Strip 2004, OCHA
[8] Review of the Humanitarian Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 2004, OCHA, United Nations
[9] Costs of Conflict: The Changing Face of Bethlehem 2004, OCHA
[10] The Humanitarian Impact of the West Bank Barrier on Palestinian Communities, March 2005, OCHA
[11] Review of the Humanitarian Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 2004, OCHA, United Nations
[12] Review of the Humanitarian Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 2004, OCHA, United Nations
[13] The Economy of the Occupation; Foreign Aid to the OPT and Israel, Alternative Information Centre
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