The economic bubble in the West Bank will burst, and instead of working to remove Israeli restrictions, the Palestinian Authority continues to push for investments in the private sector.
It is a craft that has been passed down from one generation to the next. The al-Mathloums were one of the best-known bamboo furniture-making families in Gaza but now, of his brothers, only Zakariya, the eldest son, is struggling to keep the tradition and the business alive.
West Bank trade remains largely isolated from global markets due to restrictions imposed on the movement of goods, according to a July 2011 study by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
Throughout Gaza, children take on responsibilities of adults to help their families, and adults revert from skilled labor to doing nearly anything to bring in a salary.
Despite Israel’s declared “easing” in June 2010 of the total siege on Gaza, manufacturers there are hurting badly. In June 2011 the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that “only 5 percent of the pre-blockade export volume was reached from November 2010 to April 2011.”
