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Economic prison zones

Posted on: November 21, 2010

21 November 2010 | Sam Bahour, Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)

Sam Bahour is a Palestinian business management consultant living in Ramallah. This essay was made possible with partial support from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

When a project mixes the feel-good words of jobs, economic development and Israeli- Palestinian cooperation, how can anyone complain? These things are some of what the international community has been promising to deliver through the construction of industrial free trade zones in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The free trade zone model has been promoted locally and globally by powerful third parties like the … Continue reading


Updated on November 23, 2010
Posted under: In the Media
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Turkey will not attend OECD conference, minister says

Posted on: October 12, 2010

12 October 2010 |ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey will not send any delegation to a biannual tourism conference in Israel later this month, the country’s culture minister said Tuesday, marking the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral level since a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship in May.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay told a group of reporters Tuesday that Turkey would not send any representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, conference on Oct. 20-22 in Jerusalem. “Regrettable statements have been made. We want tourism to take place, not politics,” he said.

Diplomatic … Continue reading


Updated on October 23, 2010
Posted under: In the Media
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Real per capita income of Palestine plunges

Posted on: January 17, 2010

Nadim Kawach

17 January 2010

Armed with growing global financial aid, the Palestinians in the occupied territories struggled to alleviate years of poverty, unemployment and other economic woes but their efforts have been ruined by Israel’s hostility. In such conditions, the aid was only helpful in preventing a human disaster in 2008.

While their economy recorded modest growth rates in 2008, the per capita income has steadily eroded over the past decade, investment has dived, unemployment deteriorated and the farming sector continued to shrink. Several years of concerted peace moves and international promises of a better life for the Palestinians have failed … Continue reading


Updated on January 18, 2010
Posted under: In the Media
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Israeli military demolish a gas station and supermarket in the northern West Bank village of Qusra

Posted on: December 24, 2009
Israeli military demolish a gas station and supermarket in the northern West Bank village of Qusra

23 December 2009

Residents of Qusra witnessed a Caterpillar bulldozer, flanked by 20 Israeli military jeeps, entering the village at 7am on Wednesday, 23 December. Israeli Occupation Forces quickly occupied the entire village, establishing three checkpoints at its entrances and imposing curfew on the residents. Members of Abu Amer’s family, owner of the station and adjoining supermarket, were forbidden from leaving their home as the bulldozer began razing the area before their eyes. Abu Amer was forced back in to his house when he attempted to … Continue reading


Updated on December 28, 2009
Posted under: Reports
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Jordan Valley may be hurdle in peace talks

Posted on: November 3, 2009

Howard Schneider | The Washington Post

2 November 2009

The backhoes are busy on housing plots for this new Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, and young families, under army guard and toting M-16s, have begun cultivating dozens of acres of land with dates, olives and other crops.

To the south, a water pipeline from Jerusalem has let veteran farmers double the land irrigated for date trees to 9,000 acres, with a second pipeline and more farmland expansion planned.

As the United States tries to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Jordan Valley is emerging as a key point of … Continue reading


Updated on November 3, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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EU court: No customs breaks for Israeli goods from settlements

Posted on: November 3, 2009

Ora Coren | Haaretz

3 November 2009

Israeli goods produced in West Bank settlements are not eligible for customs benefits in the European Union, stated an advocate general of the European Court of Justice last week.

Israel and the EU have a free-trade agreement that gives Israeli exports substantial customs breaks.

The advocate general’s non-binding opinion, if followed, could mean that goods produced in the territories may be saddled with full customs duties.

The opinion, submitted in a case in Germany brought by water purification firm Brita in 2002, could serve as a precedent in the EU. The company was ordered to pay 19,155 … Continue reading


Updated on November 3, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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Palestinians cry ‘blackmail’ over Israel phone service threat

Posted on: October 1, 2009

Ben Lynfield | The Independent

1 October 2009

Israel is threatening to kill off a crucial West Bank economic project unless the Palestinian Authority withdraws a request to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes during last winter’s Gaza war.

Shalom Kital, an aide to defence minister Ehud Barak, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli … Continue reading


Updated on October 1, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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Widows and Children Begin to Beg

Posted on: September 21, 2009

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

21 September 2009

There are few parks and green spaces in Gaza, and those that exist are crowded with people hungry for nature. Day and night, people of all ages flock to the Joondi, or the park of the Unknown Soldier, in central Gaza City.

Vendors set up, selling roasted nuts, falafels, cold drinks, tea and coffee. Further east, Gaza’s main garden park, charging one shekel (25 cents) admission, hosts some groomed shrubbery, decorative trees and flowers. It pales in comparison to arboretums elsewhere, but it is a bit of green in an otherwise grey Strip.

On … Continue reading


Updated on September 21, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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Farmers in Palestine create amazing produce in adverse conditions – and are fighting to export them

Posted on: September 13, 2009

Joanna Blythman | The Guardian

13 September 2009

I’m standing in what remains of Taysir Sadia Yaseen’s olive grove, looking up at a 12ft-high wire fence. It arrived in 2000 when the Israeli army, without any notice, bulldozed a trench on this rocky, precipitous hillside and erected it on his land, declaring it part of a “security buffer zone”. He points to the Israeli settlement that the fence protects. It resembles a suburban dormitory town, like something out of The Truman Show, only fortified and on a hilltop. It is encircled by twice the area of land and served by a … Continue reading


Updated on September 13, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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Israel still strangles the Palestinian economy

Posted on: August 21, 2009

Sam Bahour | The Wall Street Journal

20 August 2009

Palestinians are as eager as anyone to see positive economic development for their tormented country. But they know full well that real economic progress awaits their release from Israeli military occupation (West Bank, East Jerusalem) and siege (Gaza Strip).

Consider the recent media promotion of the Netanyahu government’s view that the occupied West Bank is witnessing rapid economic growth. Thomas Friedman picked up on that theme in his New York Times column, as did Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, in this newspaper. The selective economic data they provide ignore … Continue reading


Updated on August 21, 2009
Posted under: In the Media
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