From 1967 to the present, Israel has sought to "de-develop" Palestine.
https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1996592581170348543
From 1967 to the present, Israel has sought to "de-develop" Palestine.
That is, to make Palestinians dependent on Israel for work, wages and income, to prevent Palestinians from developing an economic base.
For decades, Israel banned Palestinian businesses that sought to compete with Israeli businesses via its permit regime. Israel required Palestinians to obtain permits to conduct business involving land or property, install a water device, cultivate citrus trees, perform electrical work, connect a generator, obtain a telephone, register a trademark or obtain a certificate of “good conduct,” required for many professions. The point of the permit regime was to suffocate Palestinian economic development.
A few examples: Israel denied a permit for a cement factory in Hebron; they forbade melon production; they banned the import of grapes & dates from the Occupied Palestinian Territories to Israel; they restricted cucumber & tomatoes cultivation; they blocked the establishment of a dairy industry in Ramallah; the result: less land was under cultivation in 1987 than 1947 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Since 1967, Israel has controlled all imports into Palestine & customs revenue from those imports. This led to a loss of revenue to the Palestinian economy from 1970 -1987 amounting to $6–11 billion (13% of the Palestinians’ GDP).
Israel also denied Palestinians access to “picks & shovels” to build an economy: Israel took control of Palestine's banks, strangling the development of Palestinian borrowing, lending & credit activities need to establish capital intensive business. The result: manufacturing’s share of the Palestinian GDP fell from 9% in 1968 to 7% in 1987.
The policy continues to the present day, as seen below, in which Israel reduced to rubble a steel factory in Hebron.
Sources: Sara M. Roy, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development; Neve Gordon, Israel's Occupation; Shir Hever, The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation
posted by Satish Sharma at
15:49
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