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| Middle East |
| The unemployment fence |
| 2004-02-08 |
| More on how the palestinian terrortories (mis-spelling deliberate) are economical completely f***k. I’m going to enjoy the vast outpourings of hypocrasy from the UN and the EU about a situation they created. EFL During the Palestinian Authority’s very first years of existence (1994-97), it failed to invest any effort in creating sources of employment in the West Bank and Gaza, meaning Palestinian dependence on the Israeli labor market had to continue. This is the principal conclusion of a study by Ziyonit Fattal Kuperwasser of Bar-Ilan University’s Middle East studies department. Around 45,000 Palestinians presently work in Israel, 30,000 of them illegally. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan will sharply cut this number - and also the amount of work that factories in the territories do for Israeli companies. All this spells another serious blow to the Palestinian Authority after those years of failure to reduce economic dependence on Israel. This period was noteworthy for the complete freedom of movement for West Bank and Gaza residents throughout Israel and the territories. Israel did the right thing until the suicide bombers. In the second period, which began with the first intifada (1987-1991), the first signs of separation between Israel and the territories emerged. That intifada was characterized by repeated strikes and curfews in the West Bank and Gaza that seriously disrupted the regular flow of workers from the territories to their jobs in Israel. These disruptions worsened during the Gulf War - the winter of 1990-91. That was when the first closures were imposed on the territories, ending the freedom of movement of the Arab residents. It was also when the groundwork was laid for importing foreign workers to Israel to replace Palestinian laborers. From the beginning, it was clear that separation and restrictions on the entry of Palestinian workers into Israel would hurt the Palestinian economy far more than it would the Israeli one. During the period in which there was freedom of movement from the territories into Israel, about one-third of the Palestinian labor force worked in Israel - and since detailed records of entries into Israel were not kept at that time, some estimates put the figure as high as 50 percent. Thus job places in Israel played a decisive role in the territories’ economy. Palestinian workers, however, played a relatively minor role in Israel’s economy. Even when Palestinian employment in Israel was at its peak, residents of the territories were only about 6 percent of all workers in Israel. And when they stopped coming, foreigners soon replaced them. The Palestinian economy on the other hand had no replacement for job places lost in Israel. The unemployment rate in the territories, which had been low in the 1980s, began to rise in the 1990s. Unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza stood at about 15 percent in 1992 and 18 percent in 1995 - today, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate is about 30 percent. The PA’s establishment created substantial job opportunities for educated residents of the West Bank and Gaza. The PA set up government agencies and public institutions that provided employment for college and university graduates, who had previously had no options other than manual labor in Israel. During the years when Israel governed the territories, the public administration numbered less than 40,000 workers. Following the PA’s establishment, this figure skyrocketed. By 1997, it had reached 82,000, and today, 140,000 people are employed by the PA bureaucracy. The study’s main criticism of the PA is that the Palestinian leadership lacked an economic strategy focused on developing sources of employment. The industrial parks that were planned were never built; the legal and organizational infrastructure for organizing the labor market was never laid; measures needed to encourage investments were never implemented. One sometimes gets the impression that the PA’s economic leadership devoted its principal efforts to organizing economic monopolies, which controlled, among other things, gasoline, flour, sugar, cigarettes, cement and steel. These monopolies made money for the PA and people affiliated with it. Its the muslim model of development, government = kleptocracy In addition, the PA’s economic leadership devoted great efforts to pleasing donor states so that it would be able to milk them for more money for projects that were not always properly planned and thought out. The PA preferred projects that involved symbols of sovereignty and prestige, such as the airport, power plant and a port in Gaza, which was never completed. In other words, the Palestinian economy, and especially its labor market that has remained dependent on Israel, is liable to be dealt another severe blow by the Israeli disengagement. It’s a blow it might not be able to absorb. As I have repeatably stated the Paleo terrororities are not viable unless Israel trades with them. The complete absence of trade and investment with their Arab neighbours is striking. What will happen? I suspect that the UN and the EU will be embarassed by how abysmal their policy failure is and the residents of the WB and Gaza will drift off to the slums of Cairo and where-ever when the money dries up as it definitely will. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #3 since 9-11 i really do not give a damn! the paleos have chosen their lot - now reap what you sow! |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-2-8 1:24:47 PM |
#2 the Palestinian economy, and especially its labor market that has remained dependent on Israel, is liable to be dealt another severe blow by the Israeli disengagement. It’s a blow it might not be able to absorb.All because of those wacky homicide bombers the Pals revere so much. Who'da thunk it? Action, meet consequence. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-2-8 1:12:15 PM |
| #1 I wouldn't call the PA a kleptocracy. Its more of a kleptothugracy. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-2-8 10:58:54 AM |