More than 2 Years After “Protective Edge,” Gaza’s Economy Still Stalled

A few months after the deadly and devastating hostilities which took place during the summer of 2014 (Israel’s military “Operation Protective Edge”), Gisha – The Legal Center for Freedom of Movement – convened senior representatives from the five leading economic sectors active in the Gaza Strip: agriculture, textiles, furniture, food processing and information and communications technology. Shortly after the military operation, Israel had declared that, for the first time since tightening the closure on the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, it would allow goods from Gaza to be marketed in the West Bank.

2017-02-24

“We wanted to know what Gaza entrepreneurs, industrialists, and traders had to think about this. Particularly, we hoped to glean what the potential might be in light of the change in policy and also what it might take for them to prosper once their natural markets, Israel and the West Bank, opened up to them again; hearing about the potential in terms of creating jobs, cultivating professional knowhow, and garnering revenues. The findings are summed up in our document titled Made in Gaza,” they said.

At the time, it seemed that the international community was rallying around the cause of helping Gaza’s economy to recover. Israeli political and security officials voiced their support for reconstruction and said that with it would bring greater stability. After seven years of closure, Kerem Shalom would be open to outgoing traffic of goods, more than just the trickle going overseas, and goods made in Gaza started leaving for nearby destinations. It was clear that the optimism on the part of our interviewees, and their hopeful plans at business expansion, relied on the belief that physical access to markets in the West Bank and Israel was just a matter of time.

Two years have gone by. “During this time, we reviewed and reported various decisions on the part of Israel, which limited the marketing that actually took place — restrictions imposed on the types of commodities that could exit, which days, to where and how. Over the course of 2016, ‘security blocks’ were imposed on hundreds, if not thousands, of the lucky Gaza residents who are allowed to travel from the Strip in the first place, including, and perhaps mainly, traders and businesspeople. Those singled out as a security risk are denied freedom of movement, putting their businesses at risk and compromising the jobs their businesses create. The state of affairs as of early 2017 is as follows: unemployment in Gaza is on the rise, civilian infrastructure is lacking, and the overall economy is far from taking off,” the report said.

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