Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 29

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace

production. Even in the current allocation of territorial authority, fairness requires much
more equitable sharing of water resources.
Palestine economic development
Economic development for Palestinians is a major topic of common interest as
part of the Oslo process. Allowing people to develop their economic potential and pursue
economic well-being—“the pursuit of happiness”, in our American Declaration of
Independence— is an important human right. Palestinians under Israeli occupation
cannot fully exercise it. Israel is a regional economic power and its citizens, primarily the
Jewish ones, enjoy the benefits of a global economy. Palestinians are much poorer, and
Israeli policies contribute substantially to making them that way. The economic
opportunities and public services that the GOI provides to people under its control vary
widely. The government provides generous public and social services to Jewish Israelis,
especially those settling in the occupied Palestinian territories. Within Israel, non-Jewish
citizens get some services and opportunities, but fewer than their Jewish compatriots.lxvii
Also, incomes and standards of living are much lower in the occupied territories are
much lower than in Israel.lxviii Palestinians living in the occupied territories get
essentially no services from the occupying government, even though international law
requires that the occupying power provide such services. The Israeli government also
actively blocks the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza from many economic
opportunities, as elaborated below. The Palestinian Authority, Hamas in Gaza, and the
UN provide some social services to Palestinians with funds from taxes and donors,
although the Israeli government periodically cuts off their access to these funds.
Allowing and helping the Palestinian economy to develop in the West Bank and
Gaza was part of the Oslo understanding. Employment and economic progress would
give Palestinians reasons to hope and work for peaceful coexistence with Israel. The Oslo
peace process and the establishment of the PA initially ushered in rapid growth, driven by
some return of the Palestinian Diaspora and large inflows of public and private capital.
Yet those early hopes did not last:
Economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza… deteriorated in the early 1990s. Real per capita GDP
for the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) declined 36.1% between 1992 and 1996 owing to the combined
effect of falling aggregate incomes and robust population growth. The downturn in economic activity was
due to extensive corruption in the newly governing Palestinian Authority, and to Israeli closure policies in
response to security incidents in Israel, which disrupted previously established labor and commodity
market relationships. The most serious effect was the emergence of chronic unemployment. Average
unemployment rates in the 1980s were generally under 5%; by the mid-1990s this level had risen to over
20%. After 1997, Israel's use of comprehensive closures decreased and new policies were implemented. In
October 1999, Israel permitted the opening of a safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in
accordance with the 1995 Interim Agreement. These changes in the conduct of economic activity fueled a
moderate economic recovery in 1998–99.lxix

The outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 brought increased violence and
uncertainty and the intensification by Israel of policies that impeded the movement of
people and goods and fragmented the Palestinian territories into small enclaves lacking
economic cohesion. In the ensuing recession, GDP contracted by an average of nine

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