Gaza’s manufacturing sectors would be able to significantly boost their output should Israeli restrictions on sales in the West Bank be lifted, a new report claims.
The study by Israeli NGO Gisha is based on in-depth interviews and discussions with senior figures in the Gaza Strip’s primary productive sectors: agriculture, textile, furniture, food processing and information and communications technology (ICT).
Gaza’s business and trade leaders estimate that they would be able to sell between 30 per cent and 90 per cent of their output capacity in the West Bank, “should restrictions on movement of goods and people from Gaza to Israel and the West Bank be lifted.”
Before Israel imposed a blockade, 85 per cent of goods departing Gaza were sent to their natural markets in Israel and the West Bank. Decisions taken by Israel “intended to institutionalise the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank”, caused significant economic damage.
“Factories have shut down, equipment in the manufacturing process is no longer operational and staff has been cut back, while business, along with business and personal connections have shrunk.”
According to Gisha, the Israeli-imposed ban on accessing Israel and the West Bank “virtually eliminated economic life in Gaza.”
In November 2014, ten tonnes of cucumbers were sent from Gaza to Hebron – the “first time Israel allowed Gaza goods to be sold on the private market in the West Bank in seven and a half years.” However, these kinds of “slight easings” of the blockade “are not enough to allow real recovery.”
Thus, the NGO’s study states, “removing access restrictions between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is critical for Gaza’s economic recovery and regional stability.”