Mohammed Ibrahim Megdad, openDemocracy, 9 April 2009
A viable Palestinian economy is impossible without disengagement from the Israeli economy, thoroughgoing reform of the Palestinian Authority, not to mention lifting the siege.
In some regards, the current crisis of the Palestinian economy is as old as the Occupation itself. In 1967 Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in addition to the Golan Heights and Sinai Desert. Immediately after that war, Israel formed an economic body made up of the Bank of Israel and the Census Committee. The main goal of such a body was to bind the Palestinian economy to that of Israel, thereby subsuming it. This inherently subordinate relationship, with Palestinians denied the rights of free trade and unrestricted production, has rendered the Palestinian economy almost completely ineffective. AGRISCO, for example, is an Israeli company which has a monopoly on all agricultural exports: the Palestinians were forced to work through this company, otherwise their products would go nowhere. The clothing industry has always been subcontracted by Israeli producers and traders. In this way, Israel has sought to separate the Palestinian economy not only from its Arab surroundings but also from the outside world.
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