It's tough doing business in the West Bank and Gaza. Increasingly, chaos and desperation are taking the reins, and there is enough blame for this to go around. The Hamas election has proven a disaster for the Palestinians, not only because of the international diplomatic and economic isolation it provoked, but also because of the continued warfare among and between Palestinians -- in the form both of fighting between Hamas and Fatah and internal violent disputes among young gangs who have no particular allegiance to anyone. (One leading PLO official told me this past summer that he thought the most dangerous situation was precisely that -- a young generation of armed men with no clear game plan except to lash out at fellow Palestinians as well as, of course, Israelis).
Yet, as long as it remains the occupying power in the West Bank, much responsibility falls to Israel. As the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel's southern periphery and the war with Hezbollah along the Lebanese border both showed, unilateral withdrawals, as Israel had done in both cases, don't provide security for Israel or smooth transitions for the Arab inhabitants of Gaza and South Lebanon. Moreover, while the war between Israel and Hezbollah has ended, the Israeli Defense Forces continue military actions in Gaza, partly provoked by the Hamas abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit this past summer (negotiations for his release seem to be nearing completion) but not solely due to that kidnapping. The most devastating move was the late June IDF bombing of a Gazan power generator, knocking out 43 percent of Gaza's power, still not fully restored.
A new World Bank report issued in August reveals ongoing economic devastation in Gaza and the West Bank. "The twin goals of enhanced Israeli security and improved Palestinian movement are compatible in the near-term," said the report, "and & over a longer time period, Israeli facilitation of Palestinian economic recovery is key to the achievement of sustainable Israeli security."
Sari Bashi of the Israeli NGO Gisha, which monitors the rights of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, echoes the World Bank account. In an email interview this week, she did not mince words.
Since Israel completed its disengagement plan one year ago, it has taken steps that have caused dangerous deterioration in the economic welfare of Gaza residents. It has closed the commercial crossings with Gaza to an unprecedented degree, causing, in the winter months alone, an estimated $30 million in damage to Gaza's agricultural export sector. Since June 25, 2006, Israel has closed all of Gaza's crossings to export and limited imports in ways that have repeatedly brought Gaza to the brink of a humanitarian crisis stemming from an inability to receive medicine, fuel, food, and other supplies...Israel controls the air space and territorial waters, and import by sea or air is not permitted. Since February, Israel has withheld tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and which constitute the majority of the PA's operating budget. Combined with the withholding of aid from international donors following the election of Hamas, these steps have brought the Palestinian Authority to the brink of bankruptcy... Real income is expected to contract by one third in 2006, and the proportion of people living on less than $2/day is expected to rise to 2/3.But there is in fact a chance for all this to change as a Palestinian unity government emerges, combining Fatah and Hamas along with several technocrats. There is real promise in this, particularly if the unity government works to keep the Finance Ministry out of Hamas's hands. Israeli leaders are receiving news of the unity government with lukewarm responses, as is the United States. But surely the lesson to take from this summer's crises, for Israel especially, is that talking to one's enemies often entails doing so when the timing is less than opportune. As Sever Plocker, an editorial writer at Israel's most popular daily, Yediot Achranot, wrote recently: "Israel has proven that it has a military response to Palestinian terror. Two million hungry Palestinians do not have and cannot have such a military solution. We have to engage in dialogue now."
Khoury, the Palestinian businessman, puts it this way: "Americans are not genuine with Israel. They are filling [Israelis] with steroids. If you are truthful with Israel, you push them to peace. Hamas knows damn well that the 1967 border is it." In between fielding international calls and checking the Palestinian stock market, Khoury told me: "The Palestinian private sector is persevering and creative. Diamonds are made under pressure, and we have a lot of diamonds here. The private sector is hurt enormously. Some businesses are down 50 percent and closed, but my biggest worry is the brain drain. I hope this is not what Israel wants, because it will have a Somalia next door -- and I don't wish this for Israel either."
Jo-Ann Mort writes frequently about Israel for, The Forward, tpmcafe.com and elsewhere. She is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel? She is an officer of Americans for Peace Now, affiliated with Israel's Peace Now movement.
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