issue no 118

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Issue No : 115 29th December , 2014

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


Palestinian Cultural Organization MalaysiaMalaysiaM

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Classified Israeli government report: The boycott will get worse

ICC to open preliminary probe into possible Gaza war crimes, US and

“Israel” criticise

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FEATURED STORY

Articles & Analyses

Read in This Issue

What gives them the right? Israel, Palestinian taxes and a failed

regime

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UTM’s Palestinian Student Found Drowned, PCOM convoys

condolences

Netanyahu massacred Gaza like Paris terrorists – Turkish PM

2014 ‹bloodiest› year for Palestinian media

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Israel detains 30 Palestinians in Jerusalem, W. Bank

P10 Israel Insider

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CONTENTS

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

Israel Insider

Articles & Analyses

News of Palestine

FEATURED STORY

ICC to open preliminary probe into possible Gaza war crimes, US and “Israel” criticise 4

UTM’s Palestinian Student Found Drowned, PCOM convoys condolences 5

Netanyahu massacred Gaza like Paris terrorists – Turkish PM 6

2014 ‹bloodiest› year for Palestinian media 7

Palestinian deficit to exceed $2bn in 2015 8

Israel approved the construction of 16,716 settler housing units in 2014 9

The boycott will get worse 10

Israel detains 30 Palestinians in Jerusalem, W. Bank 11

Israel police kill Palestinians in W. Bank and Negev 12

What gives them the right? Israel, Palestinian taxes and a failed regime 13

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Featured Story

ICC to open preliminary probe into possible Gaza war crimes, US and “Israel” criticise

The Hague-based prosecutors said they would examine “in full independence and impartiality” crimes that may have occurred since June 13 last year. The move allows the court to investigate ac-tions taken during the July-August 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, during which more than 2,100 Palestin-ians and 73 Israelis were killed.The United States has joined Israel in condemning a decision by the In-ternational Criminal Court (ICC) to open a preliminary probe into pos-sible war crimes committed against Palestinians, describing the move as a “tragic irony”.The US criticised the decision late on Friday, saying it opposed actions against its ally Israel as “counter-productive to the cause of peace”.“It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terror-ist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighbourhoods, is now be-ing scrutinised by the ICC,” Jeff Rathke, the US State department spokesman, said in a statement.US condemnation came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister, Benja-min Netanyahu, derided the ICC’s decision, calling it “scandalous” and “absurd”.Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official and advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, told Al Jazeera the Palestinians were prepared for any outcome by the ICC.“We want to put pressure on Is-rael that has been murdering our people, occupying our land, stealing our water and destroying Gaza,” he said.“This occupation by Israel has to end, negotiations chaperoned

by America have not been suc-cessful, on the contrary, we have failed, and now we have to go through the international arena.”Human rights group Amnesty In-ternational welcomed the ICC’s announcement, saying it “could pave the way for thousands of vic-tims of crimes under international law to gain access to justice”.While 123 countries have ratified the Rome Statute, the charter that led to the formation of the ICC, Israel and the US are not party to the court. The ICC, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, will open a pre-liminary inquiry into the possible war crimes committed in the Pal-estinian territories, and determine whether its findings merit a full in-vestigation.The outcome could result in charges against individuals on ei-ther the Israeli or Palestinian side.

Although Israel is not an ICC member, its citizens could be tried on accusations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

This means the court’s prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, during which more than 2,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel said 67 soldiers and six civilians died in the same war.Speaking to Al Jazeera from the West Bank city of Ramallah, Ammar Hijazi, a Palestinian foreign ministry official, said the Palestinian Author-ity believed that all necessary as-pects were featured in the case.“Palestine is ready to fully coop-erate if there are any violations commited during the war by the Palestinian side as well,” he said.The Palestinians decision to join the Rome Statute of the ICC and other international treaties has heightened tensions with Is-rael, with Netanyahu freezing the transfer of $127m in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.The tax revenues make up two-thirds of the Palestinian Author-ity’s annual budget, excluding for-eign aid. Source: Agencies

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A varsity student from Palestine who went missing when swim-ming near a beach of a resort in Batu Layar, Kota Tinggi, yester-day, was found drowned today.

State Fire and Rescue Depart-ment assistant director Mohd Rizal Buang said the body of Ab-dul Rahman Al Najar, 28, a PHD student at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai, was found at 9.45 am.

“A search and rescue operation for Abdul Rahman, which was halted last night, continued at 7 am today.

“His body was found on a rock three kilometres from the scene of the incident,” he said.

In the incident yesterday, 20 in-dividuals were also swimming at the scene where Abdul Rahman disappeared in Batu Layar. All are safe.

The sea was choppy and the wind was strong when the incident took place.

Palestinian Cultural Organiza-tion Malaysia (PCOM), in a press release, expresses its profound condolences to and deepest sym-pathies with the student’s family and friends.

News of Palestine

UTM’s Palestinian Student Found Drowned, PCOM convoys condolences

Source: Bernama and PCOM

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has made a parallel between last summer’s Israel-Gaza conflict and the recent attacks in Paris, putting equal blame “against humanity” on Is-raeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the Islamist terrorists.

At a Thursday news conference in Ankara Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu compared Is-rael’s bombardment of Gaza in the summer of 2014, as well as the storming in 2010 of a Turk-ish-led Gaza bound aid convoy which lead to the deaths of nine Turks, to last week’s attacks in Paris.

“Just as the massacre in Paris committed by terrorists is a crime against humanity, Netanyahu, as the head of the government that kills children playing on the beach with the bombardment of Gaza, destroys thousands of homes ... and that massacred our citizens on an aid ship in in-ternational waters, has commit-ted crimes against humanity,” Davutoglu said.

Alongside 40 world leaders, Da-vutoglu attended Sunday’s rally in Paris to commemorate the 17 victims of the three days of terror in the French capital.

Davutoglu also slammed the caricature in the tribute edition of Charlie Hebdo depicting the prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie.”

Netanyahu massacred Gaza like Paris terrorists – Turkish PM

“The publication of such caricature is a provocation. We cannot accept insults to the Prophet,” he said.

On Wednesday, a Turkish court ordered access to websites that show Charlie Hebdo’s front cover with that image to be blocked, as it posed a threat to “public order,” according to Reuters.

The words of Prime Minister echoed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said on Monday that he could “hardly under-stand how he [Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] dared to go” to the Sunday rally. He added, “You should first give an account for the children and the women you have killed,”Reuters reported.

“The West’s hypocrisy is obvious. As Muslims, we’ve never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these lie racism, hate speech and Islamophobia,” Erdogan said.

The critics triggered a war of words, as Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called President Erdogan an “anti-Semitic bul-ly” on Wednesday.

“If Israel is looking for a bully, it needs to look in the mirror,” was Davutoglu’s reply.

On Thursday, the Turkish president’s spokesman issued a state-ment, saying “The Israeli government must halt its aggressive and racist policies instead of attacking others and sheltering behind anti-Semitism.”

During a 50-day assault by the Israeli occupation forces on Gaza last summer over 2,100 Palestinians were killed, most of them ci-vilians. The Israeli death toll was 73, mostly soldiers.

15 Jan 2015 Source: RT

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Last year was the deadliest ever for journalists working in the Palestinian territories, a Gaza-based watchdog said Thursday, months after a bloody war in the besieged enclave.

“2014 was a black year for freedom of the press in Palestine... and it was the worst and bloodiest,” the Gaza Center for Press Freedom said in its annual report.

The report accused Israel of committing 295 separate “violations of press freedom” across the occupied Palestinian territories.

These resulted in the deaths of 17 journalists during the 50-day Gaza war in July-August, including that of an Italian photographer working for Associated Press.

Israel also arrested or detained an unspecified number of journalists, denied freedom of movement to local media workers wanting to leave the blockaded Gaza Strip, and partially or completely destroyed 19 buildings housing editorial operations during its bombardment of the territory during the conflict.

Palestinian authorities also committed 82 violations of press freedom, including arresting or summoning 28 journalists, and injuring or assaulting 26 more.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas in densely-populated Gaza, home to 1.8 million people, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

15. Jan. 2015 Source: Ma’an

2014 ‹bloodiest› year for Palestinian media

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Palestinian deficit to exceed $2bn in 2015

The Palestinian government’s deficit is expected to reach near-ly $2 billion in 2015, the Anadolu Agency reported a Palestinian fi-nance ministry official as saying.

The official told the agency yes-terday that the Palestinian Gen-eral Budget Committee and the World Bank are afraid of the con-tinued decline in external finan-cial support for the Palestinian government.

The official, who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity, said the defi-cit in the 2015 budget would be larger than previous years be-cause of the additional expenses needed to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.

The official pointed out that exter-nal support, in particular from the US and the EU, has witnessed a steady decline since 2012.

The total Palestinian budget for 2014 was estimated at $4.21 bil-

lion with a $1.25 billion deficit.

In October, Palestinian Minis-ter of National Economy and Deputy Prime Minister for Eco-nomic Affairs Mohammad Mus-tafa demanded donor countries provide the Palestinian budget with financial support worth $1.3 billion.

At the International Conference on Reconstructing Gaza Mus-tafa said: “Starting from next year, the Palestinian budget will need additional external support worth $1.3 billion to fulfil its obli-gations to the citizens.”

The US support for the Palestin-ian budget declined in 2014 by $200 million to reach $100 mil-lion by the end of November. In 2013 it totalled nearly $350 mil-lion.

The total European support for the Palestinian budget during 2013 reached nearly $300 mil-

lion which declined to $250 mil-lion in November 2014.

The Palestinian official pointed out that the Palestinian leader-ship’s political positions since 2012 contributed to declining ex-ternal support to the Palestinian budget. He added that the failure of the Palestinian-Israeli talks and the signing of the Palestin-ian reconciliation agreement in April 2014 have had a major role in the decline, noting that the Palestinian request to join the ICC will also contribute to reduc-ing external support.

Box:

Declining US support for the Pal-estinian budget:

2013: $350 million.

2014: $100 million

14 January 2015 Source: MEMO

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Israel approved the construction of 16,716 settler housing units in 2014

The Israeli government approved schemes for building 16,716 new housing units in 33 settlements during 2014,” the officer in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Dagh-las, said.

In a press statement issued yesterday, he said the majority of the units were in Jerusalem, followed by Bethlehem and Salfit, stressing that the military orders, which affected thousands of acres of Palestinian land, were mostly either for the purpose of building the Separation Wall or confiscating land.

He explained that, based on these allegations, the Palestinians are prevented from developing their land without a permit issued by the Israeli authorities, where the occupation confiscated 7,304 acres of land in 2014.

He added: “The past year has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of settler violations, where settlers launched 790 attacks on Palestinians and their properties, mostly in Jerusalem with 290 attacks, followed by 132 assaults in Hebron, 130 in Nablus and 107 attacks in Bethlehem.”

Some 10,596 trees and seedlings were uprooted during 2014, in addition to the demolition of 333 Palestinian homes, including 96 in East Jerusalem.

Daghlas stressed that the occupation authorities had issued 18 confiscation orders against Pales-tinian land either on security grounds or by declaring them as state lands during the year of 2014.

14 Jan 2015

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A classified Israeli government report has claimed that the country’s deteriorating international position will further decline in 2015, with a growth in boycott campaigns.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) document,leaked to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, was sent to Israel’s diplomatic missions worldwide and is “a summary of a multi-ministry situation assessment conducted by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.”

The report warns of diplomatic damage due to “moves to mark settlement products, stop the supply of re-placement parts; debates on sanctions against Israel; demands for compensation for damage caused by Israel to European projects in the Palestinian territories; European activity in Area C, under Israeli rule; and more.”

The document notes that “the Europeans are creating a clear connection between diplomatic relations and economic ones”, while, banks and investment funds could follow examples in Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands, and divert “millions of dollars into alternative investments.”

Among other examples, the document also warns that “the academic boycott against Israel could also es-calate.”

14 January 2015 Source: MEMO

Classified Israeli government report:

The boycott will get worse

Israeli Insider

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Sami al-Jaar, 20, was killed late Wednesday during clashes be-tween Arab protesters and Is-raeli police in the Negev city of Rahat. Another Palestinian man was killed in Gush Etzion, a clus-ter of Israeli villages southern the West Bank.

Israeli police have killed an Arab Israeli man during clashes with stone-throwing Bedouin pro-testers in the southern Negev region, sparking anger with the Arab communities in the area, an Arab Israeli lawmaker said.

“We, the Palestinians in Negev, have lost another man. This is another sign that the Israeli po-lice are dealing recklessly when

Israel detains 30 Palestinians in Jerusalem, W. Bank

it comes to our lives,” MP Taleb el-Sana told The Anadolu Agen-cy.

According to al-Sana, Sami al-Jaar, 20, was killed late Wednes-day during clashes between Arab protesters and Israeli po-lice in the Negev city of Rahat.

“They could have captured him rather of killing him. Now, the whole Negev is boiling with an-ger,” he added.

In a statement, the Israeli police said that two policemen were injured in clashes with stone-throwing individuals in Rahat, asserting that its personnel were in the city to pursue criminals.

Israel refers to Palestinians who remained in their homes and cit-

ies after the creation of Israel in 1948 as “Arab Israelis.”

There are around 1.6 million Arabs in Israel, accounting for around 20 percent of the coun-try’s population, according to of-ficial Israeli figures.

Claiming that most land in the Negev Desert is “state property,” the self-proclaimed Jewish state has repeatedly demolished Bed-ouin homes in the area.

“Car thief”

Meanwhile, Israeli police on Wednesday started an investi-gation into the killing of a Pales-tinian man in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army has said.

It added in a statement that the

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Israel police kill Palestinians in W. Bank and Negev

Sami al-Jaar, 20, was killed late Wednesday during clashes be-tween Arab protesters and Is-raeli police in the Negev city of Rahat. Another Palestinian man was killed in Gush Etzion, a clus-ter of Israeli villages southern the West Bank.Israeli police have killed an Arab Israeli man during clashes with stone-throwing Bedouin pro-testers in the southern Negev region, sparking anger with the Arab communities in the area, an Arab Israeli lawmaker said.“We, the Palestinians in Negev, have lost another man. This is another sign that the Israeli po-lice are dealing recklessly when it comes to our lives,” MP Taleb el-Sana told The Anadolu Agen-cy.According to al-Sana, Sami al-Jaar, 20, was killed late Wednes-day during clashes between Arab protesters and Israeli police in the Negev city of Rahat.“They could have captured him rather of killing him. Now, the whole Negev is boiling with an-ger,” he added.In a statement, the Israeli police said that two policemen were injured in clashes with stone-throwing individuals in Rahat, asserting that its personnel were in the city to pursue criminals.Israel refers to Palestinians who remained in their homes and cit-ies after the creation of Israel in 1948 as “Arab Israelis.”There are around 1.6 million Arabs in Israel, accounting for around 20 percent of the coun-try’s population, according to of-ficial Israeli figures.Claiming that most land in the Negev Desert is “state property,” the self-proclaimed Jewish state

has repeatedly demolished Bedouin homes in the area.“Car thief” Meanwhile, Israeli police on Wednes-day started an investigation into the killing of a Palestinian man in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army has said. It added in a statement that the Pal-estinian man was killed in Gush Etzi-on, a cluster of Israeli villages south-ern the West Bank.The army did not mention further details about the event. An army source, however, told Israel army radio earlier that an army patrol had killed the Palestinian man as he tried to steal the car of an Israeli settler.The source added that another Pal-estinian man was detained at the same site and referred to interroga-tion.Ongoing arrestsThe Israeli army detained nine Pal-estinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, Palestinian security sources and an NGO said Tuesday.Israeli army forces conducted raids in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where they arrested five Palestinians after searching homes, the sources

told The Anadolu Agency.The raids sparked clashes be-tween Israeli troops and Pales-tinian youths, in which the latter threw stones and empty bottles at soldiers, who responded with teargas, live ammunition and rubber bullets.At least one Palestinian sus-tained gunshot injuries, the sources added.The Palestinian Prisoners So-ciety, an NGO, said the Israeli army had detained two Palestin-ians in Beit Ummar village in the northern Hebron province.Two other Palestinians were detained in the northern Nablus province, the NGO added.Israeli forces routinely launch arrest campaigns against Pal-estinians in the occupied West Bank on the pretext that they are “wanted” by the Israeli au-thorities.Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Pris-oners’ Affairs.

15 Jan 2015 Source: World Bulletin

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What gives them the right? Israel, Palestinian taxes and a failed regime

As the Palestinians move to join the International Criminal Court, Israel’s response has been to punish them by withholding $175 million per month in taxes collected on their behalf. This retribution has been condemned by Israel’s closest ally, the US government, and added to an already significant rift between Israel’s president and prime min-ister. However, if we examine the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Au-thority (PA) more closely, it be-comes clearer that these latest actions are only the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

The impact of Israel’s occupa-tion on the health and prospects of Palestine’s economy is the subject of numerous studies and analyses. However the specif-ics remain largely unknown to the general audience. This is a problem. Particularly for those interested in understanding the impediments to a more just and sustainable solution for the Isra-el-Palestine conflict.

Indeed, in order to grasp just how deep Palestine’s economic problems really are, under these conditions, it is important to come to terms with the fact that not only is the current state of af-fairs a product of a long history of occupation, displacement and

Articles & Analyses

denial of basic Palestinian rights, but it has also come to pass be-cause of the specific set of rules and regulations set out in the agreements between the PLO and Israel in the 1990s.

The political and regulatory framework

In April 1994, as part of the ‘Oslo Peace Process’ Israeli and Pal-estinian negotiators signed a document called “Annex IV to the Gaza-Jericho agreement” – better known as the ‘Paris Pro-tocol’ – despite being intended to last for only five years, this agreement established the main framework for the economic rela-tions between the PA and Israel that remains in place today.

The Protocol acknowledged a number of Palestinian economic rights that had, up to that point, been ignored. By recognising these rights, some significant improvements were made to Palestinian lives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as allowing some room for Pales-tinian control over the destiny of private businesses and revenue streams for the newly estab-lished PA.

However, the overall outcome of the process was deeply flawed. In particular this was because it set up the relationship between

the PA and Israel in the form of a normal customs union with-out properly taking into account the political reality. Or in other words, the Paris Protocol cre-ated an economic relationship between Israel and the PA based on the assumption that the two sides would be prepared to work together towards a mutually de-sirable goal of ending the occu-pation and establishing an inde-pendent Palestinian state. As it turned out, this assumption was not a good one to bank on.

Indeed criticism of the Protocol is both widespread and, in many cases, damning. According to Sara Roy, an academic based at Harvard University, the three crit-ical outcomes of the Paris Pro-tocols comprised little more than the economic aspect of a broad-er process of outsourcing Isra-el’s occupation to the Palestinian

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proxies. And, instead of bring-ing the end of the occupation closer, the Protocol entrenched it further and also helped to ‘de-develop’Palestine.

Problems with the Protocol and their lasting impact

While there is some disagree-ment in academic analyses over whether or not Roy’s inter-pretation of Israeli intentions is correct, or provable (other aca-demics, for instance, suggest that the process was less likely to be planned from the outset but, instead, more likely to be a product of successive Israeli governments maximizing their advantage), there is consensus that the Protocol turned out to be extremely one-sided and suffers from range of weaknesses.

These weaknesses are evident both in the Protocol’s implemen-tation and in terms of the lack of opportunity it allowed for the Palestinians to redress the im-balance of power even at times when Israel clearly overstepped its rights, or ignored its obliga-tions. One solid example of just such an overstep is in the ac-tions taken by Israel at this very moment, to deny the PA access to taxes collected on its behalf.

Article V of the Protocol stipu-lates “Israel and the Palestinian National Authority will each de-termine and regulate indepen-dently its own tax policy in mat-ters of direct taxation”. So for Palestinians working in the occu-pied territories, the PA is respon-sible for collecting taxes. But for Palestinian workers in Israel and in the settlements (some 11% of the labour force, according to

official statistics) Israel should collect taxes and repatriate the money to the PA.

The Protocol goes on to specify that Israel should transfer 100% of taxes collected from Pales-tinian workers in Israeli settle-ments and 75% of the income taxes collected from Palestinian workers in Israel proper. This is because Israel also gets make deductions for social security and health insurance from Pal-estinian labourers in its territory, despite the fact that the workers do not generally receive benefits in return. (Moreover, given that these are official figures they do not take into account the labour of approx. 30,000 undocument-ed Palestinian workers in Israel who will contribute to Israel’s GDP, but are unlikely to pay tax-es to anyone).

Fiscal leakage and Political Instability

Israel has, of course, played this trick before. Indeed in 2011 and 2012 Israel similarly withheld tax revenue collected on behalf of the PA, only to release that money when the PA’s fiscal crisis was a contributing factor in the outbreak of popular protests that could have, potentially, precipi-tated further instability. Currently however, Palestinian taxes have become a political football in the middle of a fractious Israeli elec-tion campaign, so their return looks less likely to be as smooth a process as before.

But even if these diverted taxes were returned tomorrow, it would hardly make a dent in a system that is profoundly debilitating to both the PA treasury, and con-

Palestinian taxes have become a political football

in the middle of a fractious

Israeli election campaign, so

their return looks less likely to be as smooth a process as

before

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according to UNCTAD, the

amount lost to the Palestinian

treasury either through weaknesses in the system, or

through deliberate evasion of the

system’s rules by Israel, “exceeded

$310 million in 2011

sequently to broader Palestinian economic and social conditions. Indeed, figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show that, direct taxation such as income tax – (of which the taxes collected from Palestinian workers in Israel and the settle-ments, and is currently withheld by Israel comprise only a small portion) – is of much lesser sig-nificance to Palestine’s fiscal for-tunes than is indirect taxation. And yet, just as in the case of di-rect taxation regime, the system of indirect taxation established by the Protocol is deeply one sided and problematic.

How Israel’s actions impact on the amount the PA gleans from indirect taxes is more complex and less obvious than in the case of withholding direct taxes. This is not to say that these data are not well documented or less costly.

In effect this wide array of com-plex dynamics involved effec-tively come down to a series of issues surrounding Israeli uni-lateralism on regulating taxes on imported goods, in spite of the requirement stipulated in the Protocol to coordinate with the Palestinians. Indeed, examples of how such actions have signifi-cant negative consequences for the PA and for Palestinian devel-opment are easy to find.

For instance, when in 2000 Isra-el cancelled or reduced the pur-chase tax on a range essential goods, without warning, Pales-tinian companies suffered losses estimated at $30 million in the value of warehoused goods (as

value was reduced below that which was paid in when the original purchases took place). Israel again took a similar unan-nounced step in 2013 by reduc-ing all customs duties on shoes and clothing thus completely un-dermining what little productive capacity there was left in these sectors in Palestine.

Overall, according to UNCTAD, the amount lost to the Pales-tinian treasury either through weaknesses in the system, or through deliberate evasion of the system’s rules by Israel, “exceeded $310 million in 2011, equivalent to 3.6 per cent of total gross domestic product (GDP) and 18 per cent of the tax rev-enue of the Palestinian National Authority.” Moreover, around 40 per cent of the money lost to the treasury “is related to direct and indirect imports from Israel, and the remaining 60 per cent is in the form of evasion of customs duties.”

Thus, even on top of the damage caused to Palestine’s economic prospects by the practical con-straints of the occupation, re-lated issues of political risk, de-nial of access to basic resources etc. – even at times when both sides are effectively ‘at peace’ – the legacy of the Paris Proto-col ensures that the status quo is hugely biased towards Israeli interests and undermines pros-pects of Palestinian economic development in both the short and long term.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect PCOM’s editorial policy.

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issue no 118

Documents

israel police

ally israel

palestinian taxes

palestinian mediap6p7p11israel

palestinian deficit

bankp10 israel insider

senior palestinian ofcial

possible gaza war crimes