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The West Bank and the illusion of economic prosperity

January 27, 2014 at 3:56 am

Ramallah: An oasis of prosperity that is the exception, not the rule

The West Bank, we are led to believe, is seeing an upsurge in prosperity; a boost in economic growth. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted in an interview with Matt Lauer for the Today show in September last year that Israel has “removed hundreds of roadblocks, checkpoints, opened the Allenby Bridge so goods and services and people can come back and forth into the West Bank. The results are spectacular. The West Bank economy, according to the IMF, is growing at 7%. If we meet and talk – we can make it grow to double digits. And that is good for peace. It’s not a substitute but it helps.”

This is a deliberate misrepresentation of the situation, with Netanyahu talking about the West Bank as if it is a contiguous whole instead of the divided entity that it really is. While there well may be one or two areas of economic development they are not widespread. Ramallah is probably the only area which can reasonably be wheeled out as an example of economic success and development in the West Bank; and it is, frequently. However, while it is true to say that the economic situation in Ramallah has certainly seen a big improvement in recent years, it is important to understand that Ramallah is the exception and not the rule, and it is a precarious exception at that.


The Palestinians who live in Ramallah have a very different lifestyle to that of their fellow Palestinians scattered across the rest of the Occupied Territories. For example, while those living in Palestinian Authority-controlled Ramallah celebrated the New Year in January 2009 in parties and restaurants, their fellow citizens in Gaza spent the night being bombed by Israel’s occupation forces. Similarly, while those in Ramallah may currently travel throughout that small city relatively unimpeded, Palestinians in the rest of the region are subjected to daily humiliation at Israeli road blocks and military checkpoints; they also have to endure indiscriminate arrests and unjustified interrogations leading frequently to torture and sometimes to death. While the residents of Ramallah can go to work in the day reasonably secure in the knowledge that they will return home in the evening to a hot meal and well-rested family members, other Palestinians leave their homes not knowing if their houses will still be standing when they return or if they will have been demolished by Israeli Caterpillar bulldozers in order to make room for new Israeli settlements. As one Palestinian recently said in an interview with Le Monde Diplomatique, “Ramallah is not Palestine… It’s 5%. But 95% of Palestine suffers.”

There are many reasons why Ramallah seems to have been allowed to flourish as a little oasis surrounded by suffering and hardship, and why it has been allowed to exist relatively unhindered by Israel. Ramallah is the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is where many PA officials live and where the PA headquarters is based. As such, life there has been allowed to develop in a way that contrasts sharply with other Palestinian areas. Not only has Israel allowed this token economic oasis to exist, in what can be seen as a concession to the PA, but the PA has also been accused of corruption as a direct result. In addition to allegations surrounding the torture of its own citizens and other scandals, the PA receives large financial donations from America and other countries which are used, apparently, to improve the specific areas in which senior PA officials live and work. Clearly, it is not being distributed to the places where it is really needed. Ramallah now boasts restaurants, clubs, a brand new football stadium, cultural centres and so on. It is a world away from the facilities and civic amenities available to other Palestinian neighbourhoods in the Occupied Territories. This fact must be acknowledged by those who hold Ramallah up as an example of West Bank economic development and success.

Economic peace as a route to political peace?

There are other reasons for this economic disparity apart from the apparent Israeli largesse which allows Ramallah to prosper. For political and diplomatic reasons Ramallah is hailed as an example of Palestinian prosperity that has been allowed to flourish by the grace of, and through cooperation with, the occupying power, Israel. Economic peace and development for Palestinians are terms used by those who claim that economic stability is the key to peace in the Holy Land. To its supporters, Ramallah is what all occupied Palestine could be if only the Palestinians would play by the rules determined by their oppressors. In short, give up their resistance to the illegal occupation of their land.

However, despite such claims, Israeli actions betray the real intentions. One of the key advocates of the doctrine of “economic peace” is Benjamin Netanyahu who said, “Economic peace is not a substitute for a political peace but an important element in achieving it.” However, he clearly does not want political peace; if he did, he would be doing his best to help Palestine find its feet economically instead of which he is imposing hundreds of restrictions on the Palestinians designed specifically to curtail their ability to sustain themselves financially or to develop economically in any way. Someone with the most rudimentary understanding of economics knows that free movement and the free flow of goods is essential for a healthy economy. So how can a healthy economy prevail with so many Israeli-imposed restrictions on the movement of people and goods across the Occupied Territories? Military checkpoints, barriers, trenches and gates restrict movement from one part of the West Bank to another; add to this the restrictions on imports and exports and it is easy to see that a healthy economy is impossible to achieve. Throw in frequent power cuts and the apartheid wall cutting off farmers from their farms and shopkeepers from their shops and customers and you have nothing at all that suggests an Israeli desire to see economic peace prevail for the Palestinians.

Palestinians who try to overcome these difficulties and start or develop their own businesses are obstructed by Israel at every turn. Overseas investors who consider supporting a West Bank business project are faced with numerous obstacles, from obtaining multiple-entry business visas to applying for residency permits while they work on their investments. The World Bank has pointed out that this “lack of easy access to investments discourages potential investors from investing in Palestine, therefore limiting the development of large and moderate economic projects in the territories.”

Reports of Israeli settlements appearing almost overnight and Israeli nightclubs, bars, hotels, museums and tourist resorts prospering have to be considered in the light of stories of food rotting in the sun at the Gaza border because the Israeli siege on Gaza prevents it from being allowed in or out; the tons of medical aid in warehouses on the Egyptian side of the Gaza-Egypt border passing manufacturers’ expiry dates because Israel will not lift the blockade; acre after acre of arable Palestinian farmland being stolen by Israel to make way for settlements or the apartheid wall; and hundreds of ancient olive trees being bulldozed and burned to the ground by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Where is the economic peace that we hear so much about?

Tony Blair is another proponent of the economic peace myth. In an interview with Al-Arabiya on 6th January 2010, he said, “The most important effort [I am] currently engaged in is strengthening Palestinian institutions in both the West Bank and Gaza as well as working hard to enhance economic development in both parts of the occupied territories.” Blair noted that economic progress “is already becoming noticeable in the West Bank and that attracting the private sector and providing investment opportunities will play a major role in boosting the economy.” Considering that he is probably being paid an exorbitant salary, Tony Blair is not being a very effective “Peace Envoy”. His official spokesman claims that, “We have seen a real change as a result of Tony Blair’s efforts. The economy is now flourishing. Palestinians are now able to move throughout the West Bank in ways impossible when we started pushing for changes”; the facts on the ground, minus this PR spin, tell an entirely different story. Furthermore, Blair has been criticised heavily for putting his own commercial interests ahead of the people he is meant to be helping. As David Rose has pointed out, “since becoming a part-time peace envoy on leaving office in 2007, he has exploited his superb contacts to pursue a multi-million pound fortune”. Blair’s primary interest, it seems, has been one of achieving economic prosperity for himself and not for the Palestinian people.

Gaza’s economic crisis

No doubt Netanyahu and Blair avoid mentioning the Gaza Strip when they talk of Palestinian economic security and peace because of the horrific blockade that Israel is imposing on the territory. The Israeli-imposed hardship in Gaza gets worse by the day, and politicians’ attempts to paint a different picture do grave disservice to the people struggling to exist there. The Egyptian “Wall of Shame” which will block off the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza will be the final nail in the Israeli-made coffin for the Palestinians who are now relying almost exclusively on those tunnels for basic provisions such as food, clothes and medicine.

Gaza’s economy has been crippled by Israel. The World Bank reports that “Gaza’s private sector has suffered greatly from the strict limitations on imports and near total banning of exports since June 2007. This has contributed to the closure of 70%-90% of working establishments”. The levels of “chronic unemployment”, as UNRWA calls it, are at an all time high and are among the highest in the world. Approximately 85% of Gazans depend on humanitarian aid and above 80% are said to live below the poverty line. According to UNRWA’s 2010 Emergency Appeal “initial results of a recent poverty survey conducted by UNRWA have highlighted a major decline in living conditions there. An estimated 325,000 refugees, or around one-third of the total registered population, are believed to be below the abject poverty line, and unable to meet their basic food needs, with a further 350,000 now below the official line and therefore lacking some of the basic requirements for a minimally dignified life.” Of the $5 billion worth of aid pledged to rebuild Gaza not a single cent has reached the people in desperate need because of Israeli restrictions.

However, as dire as the situation is for the people of Gaza, some manage to do relatively well   no thanks to Israel and Egypt   and through a combination of “tunnel goods”, the sale of home made products and policies implemented by the Hamas government, such as free health care, in some respects the situation is better for Gazans than for some of those living in the West Bank, Ramallah excepted. Accordingly, “some economists say the strip is growing faster than the West Bank run by Hamas’s rival Palestinian Authority (PA), albeit from a far lower base.”

If Gaza, which has been described by UNRWA, as having “returned to the… Stone Age, in fact even further than that” is doing better economically than some areas of the West Bank, then what does that say of conditions in the West Bank? A fact as simple as the Amnesty International estimate that between 180-200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank no longer have access to running water as a result of Israel’s policies should be a simple indicator of the direness of the conditions for many residents there. This is certainly not what Blair and Netanyahu would have us believe and their self-congratulations are clearly misplaced.

Conclusion

A large number of those living in Ramallah cannot know what it is like to live in Gaza today; many in positions of authority within the PA certainly do not, far removed as they are from even the experience of poorer areas within the West Bank. They may be enjoying the crumbs of freedom given to them by Israel at the moment but they should be aware of how tenuous their position is. They may find themselves in favour today when compared to the Hamas government but they should not delude themselves into thinking that Israel will ever really accept them. The relative prosperity that Ramallah now enjoys is at the mercy of Israeli politics and may be a very temporary phenomenon. Every effort should be made to ensure economic peace and prosperity for all Palestinians, not just for the particular clique in favour at the moment. Peace will only be achieved when justice is served and that will only happen when the blockade is lifted, when freedom of movement   a fundamental human right   is permitted once again and when all of the other human rights that the rest of the world takes for granted are afforded to all Palestinians. It is hypocritical for Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate himself for lifting a few road blocks while he is stealing more Palestinian land, building more illegal settlements and killing more Palestinians.

It is, therefore, a grave error to look to Ramallah as an example of a typical Palestinian community. Reading too much into statements which claim that Palestine is progressing just because one area is seeing a relatively good standard of living or a slight growth in economic stability is symptomatic of a fool’s paradise. It is a common Israeli tactic to draw attention to one area with relative economic stability to show how successful their strategy is in order to divert attention away from the millions of Palestinians living in poverty as a result of Israeli policies. With a just political peace, economic peace will follow, but Israel needs to be even-handed in its approach so that all Palestinians benefit from the investment in facilities and civic amenities currently enjoyed by some of the people of Ramallah. On its part, the Palestinian Authority should stop playing out the charade that what it has “achieved” for Ramallah is representative of all of the Occupied Territories. The liberation of Palestine must cover all aspects of life, and in all areas; end the occupation and peace and security will follow. Which part of that simple equation do Israeli, American and European politicians not understand?

West Bank 1998

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.