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Page last updated
March 10, 2007
Understanding the conflict
page under construction
Economy
1. The Alternative Information Center Palestine/Israel has been publsihing a series of reports on the Palestine economy under occupation.
Updated Economic Bulletin 1: Foreign Aid to the OPT and Israel
Shir Hever, April 2005
Bulletin 2: The Settlements - Economic Cost to Israel
Shir Hever, August 2005Bulletin 3: Divide and Conquer - Inequality and Discrimination
Shir Hever, September 2005
Bulletin 4 + 5: The Gaza Withdrawal - Winners and Losers
Shir Hever, January 2006Bulletin 6: The Question of Sanctions and a Boycott against Israel
Shir Hever, June 2006Bulletin 7-8: Breaking the Labor Market—The Welfare to Work Plan in Israel Focus on East Jerusalem
Administrator, September 2006Economy of the Occupation 9: The Occuption through the Eyes of Israeli Economists
Shir Hever, October 2006
Economy of the Occupation 10: Cheap Wars
Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan, October 2006Sara Roy, Palestine Center Information Brief No. 143 (02 October 2006)
Overview: In one of many reports and accounts of economic life in the Gaza Strip that I have recently read, I was struck by a description of an old man standing on the beach in Gaza throwing his oranges into the sea. The description leapt out at me because it was this very same scene I myself witnessed some 21 years ago during my very first visit to the territory. It was the summer of 1985 and I was taken on a tour of Gaza by a friend named Alya. As we drove along Gaza's coastal road I saw an elderly Palestinian man standing at the shoreline with some boxes of oranges next to him. I was puzzled by this and asked Alya to stop the car. One by one, the elderly Palestinian took an orange and threw it into the water. His was not an action of playfulness but of pain and regret. His movements were slow and labored as if the weight of each orange was more than he could bear. I asked my friend why he was doing this and she explained that he was prevented from exporting his oranges to Israel and rather than watch them rot in his orchards, the old man chose to cast them into the sea. I have never forgotten this scene and the impact it had on me.
