economy

World Bank report suggests Israel sets the stage for further conflict

About ten years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Israel and the West Bank. It was a fascinating and sometimes depressing experience, particularly while visiting the West Bank.  While I admire what the Israeli people have done in building their country from virtually nothing, I was shocked at the level of social and economic discrimination that they have inflicted in the Palestinians and how it seemed obvious that herein lay the foundation for much of the conflict in the region.

Israel and the West Bank are small in geographic area by American standards. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are about 30 miles apart. Jerusalem sits on the edge of the West Bank and a short drive by car places you in this vastly different and dangerous world inhabited by Palestinians and Israeli settlers.

What I remember distinctly about the area was the vast distinction between established Israeli settlements that resembled developments in Southern California and the bedraggled Palestinian towns just a few miles away. I was reminded of the segregationist south and the “Separate But Equal” Doctrine that plagued black Americans and set the stage for the continuing discrimination today. The parallels to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not have been more obvious.

The World Bank Report

A report issued by the World Bank this Thursday reminds me again of this disparity in treatment that continues to be inflicted upon the Palestinian people and sets the stage for Hamas, whose ideology feeds the despair of the local population. The report asserts that the continuing economic crisis brought about by Israel’s continued stranglehold on the territory is setting the stage for further disaster. “It may not revolve around sub-prime mortgages, but land, or the lack of it, lies at the heart of many of the Palestinians’ problems,” the Bank says.

Since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, when jobs were already scarce and housing was at a premium, the West Bank’s economy shrank rapidly. “The situation has become untenable,” says the report, which tracks economic damage inflicted by decades of restricted access to land, whether for farming, industry or housing.

The West Bank Area C – The Palestinian “No Fly” Zone

Area C, an area comprising nearly 60 percent of the West Bank, is under the control of the Israeli military. Palestinian access to nearly 38 percent of the West Bank is limited by Jewish settlements and Israeli security.

The allocation of land in the 1995 Oslo Accords, which laid the path for a peace accord that was to lead to an eventual Palestinian state, was meant to be transitory, the report says. “However, little territory has been transferred to Palestinian Authority control since the signing … and this process has been completely frozen since 2000,” it added.

But the Palestinian population has continued to grow and its ability to meet its own development needs through economic activity is severely constrained by the land restrictions imposed by the Israeli government.

In the increasingly cramped and fragmented space beyond Area C, land use decisions have become irrational and environmental management unsound.

“Today, only a fraction of the Palestinian population resides in Area C . . . While this may have been acceptable under an interim scenario … after 13 years with minimal Israeli redeployments from Area C, the situation has now become untenable,” it continues.

“This territorial division distorts land markets by creating land shortages,” which creates pressures on housing and business development.

The World Bank forecast that “the investment climate will remain unfavourable and business opportunities much below potential” as long as most of the West Bank remains inaccessible for Palestinian economic investments. Through its segregationist policies, Israel plays into the hands of Hamas and other terrorist organizations laying the continued foundation for conflict into the foreseeable future.

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