     Hakim | Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 09:13 pm
Confrontation and war are not confined to the battlefields only. Rather, they extend to many other arenas – of which economics is one of the foremost. This reality is so relevant to Palestines that their uprising to protest the efforts of the Israelis – with banners, stones and the like, must be accompanied by an economic uprising as well. This article discusses this matter.
Impact of the Uprising:
“It is clear that the Palestinian economy is closely related to the Israeli one in that the former is subordinate to the latter since the occupation in 1967,” says Mazen Al-Egla, an economist.
Asserting that the Israeli economy directly affects the Palestinian economy, Al-Egla says that the Israeli economy, however, is not affected by what is going on in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “The Israeli economy, the volume of whose product is $111 billion, can absorb the limited impact of what is taking place in these two areas.”
Dr. Mohamed Meqdad is of the opinion that the Palestinian uprising can have a negative impact on the Israeli economy, particularly if Israeli commodities are comprehensively boycotted. “If we boycott the Israeli goods as a whole, not only those produced in settlements, the Israeli economy will be negatively affected because 80% of our imports are from Israel,” says Meqdad.
Al-Egla believes that the development of events within territories inside the Zionist entity, as of 1948, has greatly affected the Israeli economy. “The participation of the Arabs of 1948 in the events caused damage to some Israeli buildings and public property and resulted in some commercial and industrial harms, estimated by Hebrew sources at about 250 million shekels,” he says.
Palestinians’ Steadfastness:
Dr. Meqdad feels that Palestinians should observe economic steadfastness. However, their ability to do so is contingent upon many factors. He states, “Our ability to observe economic steadfastness is linked to our capability to change ties between the Palestinians and the neighboring Arab countries,” affirming that the Palestinians’ strongest trade relations are with Israel. “If we had a free rein in trade and had our checkpoints, we would import and export freely and the uprising would continue to affect Israel strongly.”
Al-Egla is not optimistic about observing economic steadfastness. “Our subordination to the Israeli economy does not give us room for talking about economic steadfastness,” he asserts. “The capabilities of the Palestinian economy are so weak that they cannot qualify the Palestinian society for such steadfastness. Talk, voiced at present about boycott, revolves around reducing the import volume in the form of boycotting some products and luxurious commodities. The Palestinians import their flour, fuel, clothes and tools necessary for their houses from Israel. Hence, it is difficult to speak about steadfastness and self-sufficiency,” Al-Egla says.
Dr. Meqdad is not denying that the current uprising is having a negative impact on the Palestinian people as well. However, he argues, it is having a greater negative impact on the Israelis. “Goods, which they export to us, will not be exported to others because they do not fit them. Moreover, the Israelis are in need of Palestinian labor. They will be surely affected,” he says.
Role of Arab Boycott:
However, Dr. Meqdad does raise questions that need to be addressed regarding the extent of the Arab boycott and the likelihood of its success. He asserts that the boycott will deal a lethal strike to the Israeli economy, if it is adopted by all Arab countries.
Both Al-Egla and Meqdad agree that any oppressed peoples desiring to liberate themselves and their land must make sacrifices and incur losses.
“Our economy will be negatively affected, but as we are struggling, we will endure all economic consequences and harms that may afflict us,” says Meqdad.
“From the economic perspective, we lose, but circumstances necessitate confrontation. This unjust extremist enemy should be faced. Therefore, economic considerations should not be given special importance in the short run,” says Al-Egla. |
| MAD MAC | Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 02:34 am
Boy did you pack a lot of questions into a short paragragh. Beats Asad who always makes me read a novel to get one lousy question.
First off, I am not defending the occupiers. I have analyzed the situation and explained some facts. I have not attached a moral value to any of them one way or another. By training and profession I don't do that. I lay out facts, analyze them, draw conclusions. Good or bad, esspecailly in this case, doesn't matter to me.
Do I think you give a damn about American foreign policy in the Middle East? Absolutely. If you didn't you wouldn't talk about it all the time.
What is in the US interest in Israel? Two major factors. Strong Jewish lobby quite adept at information warfare. If you want to be a US politician on the East and west coasts you had better be pro-Israel. If your not, your opponent is going to get big bucks in the electoral fight. The Arabs, incidentally, suck at this.
Factor Two. The holocaust. We are a long way away from burying that memory. And the Europeans, the truly guilty ones, they are even further away.
Israel isn't a so-called state, it is defacto and dejure a state. Whether the Muslims like it or not, it isn't going anywhere. The Palestinians hav got to figure out what is doable, what is not, and work from there. They also need to develop an information campaign that doesn't make them look like a bunch of idiots. |
