The Economic Cost and Opportunity of Conflict in Israel

The Right to Work, while enshrined in international human rights law, is a privilege that many in the West take for granted. We were fortunate to sit down with Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) Program Fellow Ilhan Cagri based in Washington D.C. on the working and living conditions of all peoples living under the current Netanyahu Administration in Israel.

By Joanne Leila Smith and Shivendra Singh

The conflict in Israel is often portrayed as a religious war between Muslims and Jewish peoples. The reality is quite different. Acquisition of lands without restitution and the required infrastructure development as a result of settlement expansion is big business.

We asked MPAC Program Fellow Ilhan Cagri to share her experiences on the working conditions, economic impact and public infrastructure of peoples living in both the Settlements and Gaza after visiting Israel in November 2017 and February 2018 and the human cost of living under the bifurcation between Jews and Non-Jews.

“The propaganda machine is interesting in Israel. The Netanyahu Government has to create apartheid not because it is afraid of non-Jews, but because, they are afraid of the Jewish people actually discovering the enormity of the crimes the Israeli Government is doing. The lives of Jewish peoples are circumscribed by this notion of being surrounded by the Palestinian as a bogey man. Just imagine how the Jewish people are living under that kind of trauma. It’s very important that the Government calls the citizens that they want to expel Arabs and not call them Palestinians. The Government calls them Arabs and makes the living and working conditions so unbearable because it wants them to migrate to Arab nations. Only Jewish Arabs are absorbed. The bifurcation is between Jews and Non-Jews only, it is not between Israelis and Arabs. For example, Palestinian Christians suffer the same apartheid conditions as Muslim Palestinians. So the rules for Non-Jews is very different to the rules for Jews in Israel. Only if you are Jewish do you get citizenship and the rights that go with it,” says Cagri.

The economic and human costs of the decades-long conflict have been substantial.

The malnutrition rates of peoples living in the Gaza Strip and parts of West Bank is now at a level not dissimilar to those living in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report submitted by the Members of Parliament of the UK House of Commons under the ‘Commons International Development Committee’. The report claims that the Palestinian economy is nearly collapsed.

The Committee attributed the ‘fenced occupied territories’ as being a major contributor to destroying the Palestinian economy and creating widespread poverty in the region. The Netanyahu Government has blocked all foreign humanitarian and development work in the Gaza and West Bank.

Gaza is significantly poorer than it was in the 1990s. Its economy has grown only 0.5 percent in 2017, according to The World Bank report. The annual income per person fell from USD 2,659 in 1994 to USD 1,826 in 2018.

In 2017 the Gaza Strip had the highest unemployment rate in the World Bank’s development database. The Gaza’s poverty rate stands at 39 percent. The World Bank claims this percentage would be higher if it were not for foreign aid funded by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). According to the report, over 80 percent of the population is on some form of social assistance. Unemployment rates in the region is as high as 60 to 70 percent.

According to Cagri, the Right to Work for non-Jews under the Netanyahu Administration is non-existent.

“I went to the refugee camps, where the men were lining up from 3am. The checkpoint gate is only open between 6am to 7am. If they don’t get through, they miss a day’s work. The work is day labour for Palestinians. Work permits in Israel are free, but you have to apply for them and they come at a premium – which creates corruption, this is, bribes for permits. The workers have to work 15-20 days to pay off the work permit, and the remaining 10 days is your take-home income. There are frequent, unannounced gate closures. If a kid throws a stone, the checkpoints may close for up to five days. The permits are only valid for six months. Despite all this hardship to earn a day’s wage, the people were smiling and laughing. I expected tension and anger. Conversely, when I went into the Settlements, the people seemed sad and the mood was palpably aggressive. I thought, these citizens have grass, flowers and beautiful streets and community centres in comparison, but there was no joy. I thought that was very sad,” says Cagri.

According to Cagri, all Palestinian school children and workers must go through the checkpoints. The gates are open for one hour in the morning, 45 minutes at noon and only 1.5 hours in the evening.

“Watching these school kids have to push through the gates to get home at night is heartbreaking. Palestinian workers can work inside the Settlements – usually as domestic helpers. Buses from the settlements will pick up Palestinian workers and take them to work as they are prohibited from living inside the settlements. There is total segregation. They come in and they go home. They must carry their ID papers at all times. If you don’t have your papers you can’t get in and out and if you don’t have them on your person it is a crime,” says Cagri.

The impact of segregation on the domestic markets as well as opportunities for import/export have been far-reaching.

In response to worsening conditions, The European Union coordinated an initiative called the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) of Israeli owned products and services. According to some experts, this move added to the economic woes of Palestinians. The initiative has pushed businesses out of the West Bank; disrupted film festivals, concerts and exhibitions from around the world where Palestinians and Israelis previously coordinated work with each other.

Israeli-owned enterprises are suffering under BDS too. While the companies lose trade, the working population is largely made up of cheap Palestinian labour, which reduces working opportunities in already constrained job market. There has been string of exoduses in the region because of lack of employment opportunities.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal by many in the international community. Different reports claim the Jewish population in West Bank is between 500,000 to 700,000. According to Cagri, moving goods and trade between the villages are nearly impossible for local businesses as the Settlements consistent of walled ‘tentacles’ that run between the towns and the villages so the Palestinians cannot cross over them...

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