Assessing Palestinian Economic Exchange across the Green Line

Abstract

What economic interactions exist between Palestinians across the Green Line? Moving beyond existing literature that focuses on Palestinians’ subordinate economic relationship to the Israeli economy within Israel or between the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, this article uses the concepts of dependency and de-development, as well as interviews with Palestinian business representatives, to assess cross-Green Line economic activity. It notes that despite relatively lower levels of violence since the second Intifada, current economic exchange between Palestinians is insufficient to realize economic self-determination because of: (1) ongoing political uncertainty; (2) the small scale nature of Palestinian capital and entrepreneurship; (3) the structural imbalance between a low cost Palestinian economy and high value Israeli economy; and (4) individual self-interest trumping national solidarity among Palestinian firms. The article concludes that for Palestinian economic self-determination to be realized, an alternative one-state political vision to replace the current two-state Oslo process may be required.

Key Words:

• De-development
• dependence
• economy
• Israel
• occupied Palestinian Territories
• Palestine

Notes

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3. There are a number of labels used to define Palestinians who live in Israel and the OPT, some of which have been framed from without. These have been internalized in various ways, as suggested in BADIL’s survey of Palestinian youth from Israel, the OPT, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. For example, 34 percent of Palestinian respondents in Israel self-identified as ‘Palestinian with Israeli citizenship’ while nearly 20 percent and over 10 percent labelling themselves ‘Arab’ and ‘Arab-Israeli’ respectively, the latter terms being drawn from Israeli terminology; see BADIL (2012) One People United: A Deterritorialized Palestinian Identity: BADIL Survey of Palestinian Youth on Identity and Social Ties (Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights). How and why Palestinians internalize these labels is beyond the scope of this article.

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34. Interview with Sayyedh.

35. Interviews with Atyani and Khayyat.

36. Interview with Atyani.

37. Ibid.

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39. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS, ND) Poverty Rates Among Individuals According to Household: Monthly Consumption in Palestine by Region, 2011. Available at: http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/Poverty_2011_e.htm, accessed March 24, 2014.

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52. Interview with Atyani.

53. OCHA, Area C of the West Bank.

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55. Interview with Sayyedh.

56. Interviews with Atyani and Khayyat.

57. Interview with Sayyedh.

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59. Interviews with El-Fahr and Khayyat.

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