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How Israel De-developed Palestine

We don’t talk enough about Israel’s occupation of Palestine from 1967-1987. Books, photos & videos from this period or about this period are hard to find and even harder to access.

So let’s talk about Israel’s occupation in the early years, specifically, it’s economic policies.

A quick confession: Before I dug deeper I had a poor understanding of the first decade and half of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Living standards rose meaningful for many Palestinians in the occupied territories, which at first led me to believe (incorrectly) that Israel embraced benign economic policies towards OPT Palestinians. This is false. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth: Israel sought to de-develop Palestine. Here’s how:

(1) Israel banned Palestinian firms that would compete with Israeli firms. Specifically, Israel denied a permit for a cement factory in Hebron; they forbade melon production; they banned the import of grapes and dates from the occupied territories into Israel; they set limits on how many cucumbers and tomatoes could be produced; they blocked the establishment of a dairy industry in Ramallah. To enforce its restrictions, Israeli inspectors often confiscated fruits and vegetables brought by West Bank farmers into Jerusalem. The result of these policies was that less land was under cultivation in 1987 than 1947 in the OPT. Rather than becoming a source of competition for Israeli companies, the occupied territories instead became a new export market for Israeli products.

(2) Israel denied Palestinians access to “picks and shovels” needed to build an economy. (a) Israel took control of the financial institutions in the OPT, strangling the development of Palestinian borrowing, lending, credit and investment activities; the restrictions Israel imposed on capital intensive investment meant that product lines remained labor rather than capital intensive; (b) Israel forced Palestinians to obtain permits to conduct business involving land or property, install a water device, perform electrical work or connect a generator. Israel required permits to travel, obtain a telephone, register a trademark, and obtain a certificate of “good conduct,” required for many professions; (c) Israel took control over the groundwater, the surface water, the collection of rainwater through cisterns and the right to fish in the sea, as well as massive amounts of land: from ‘67-’75 Israel declared some 150,000 hectares – 26.6% West Bank land – closed military zones, placing them off-limits to Palestinians.

(3) Israel pushed Palestinians into a relationship of dependence on the Israeli labor market. The result of the two processes described above was that fewer Palestinians could start businesses or work for businesses in the OPT. Instead, they were pushed to find work in Israel. This situation worked temporarily. But, in January 1991, Israel started to require all Palestinians in the occupied territories obtain an individual permit to enter Israel. Increasingly, Palestinians were denied permits. Things went from bad to worse during the Oslo years when Israel started to impose total lockdowns on Gaza and the West Bank:

The results were catastrophic. Unemployment in the OPT reached 33% in 1996. During periods of total lockdown, unemployment reached 70% in Gaza and 50% in the West Bank. Israel effectively robbed Palestine of ~$1.35 million a day during such periods. In short, after two and half decades of making Palestinians dependent on the Israeli labor market, Israel then decided to close the Israeli labor market to Palestinians.

If you want to learn more about Israel’s de-development of Palestine during its first 2 decades, I would recommend Sara Roy’s The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development; Neve Gordon’s Israel’s Occupation and Raja Shehadeh’s Occupier's Law: Israel and the West Bank. Happy reading!

and … to wrap…

Palestine Stand-Up of the Week

This week’s Palestine stand-up is a classic. it’s a Sammy Obeid clip on famous Palestinians. “I’m Palestinian American,” Sammy says. “I’m openly Palestinian. I was closeted for 30 years, and finally came out last year with the Hadids…” 😆😆😆 

@sammyobeidthem

"Love one another" backwards is "Another one... Love" #standupcomedy #freepalestine #palestine #jesus #djkhaled

Happy watching! Be well and stay safe out there.

-Zach