Business & Economy

On June 25, an Israeli spokesperson announced a plan intended to increase the number of settlers in the Jordan Valley by 50 percent in one year. The cost of new housing units will be $13.5 million (U.S.) in the initial year, and will increase to $32.5 million in the following year. The plan focuses on the development of agriculture and tourism in the valley, with grants of up to $22 million available for agricultural development. Agrexco is 50 percent owned by the Israeli state and all of the produce exported from the valley is packed by and sold through them. Palestinian farmers no longer attempt to export because their dealings with the company have been so catastrophic. Nor are they able to take their produce to other markets in Palestine, because it is impossible to get it through the Jordan Valley checkpoints.

As the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip draws to a close, hopes for economic prospects in this impoverished, strife-torn land have been renewed. Already, the EU has pledged investments in Gaza, with 700 million-800 million euros of mainly infrastructure projects by June, according to Antoine Eric de Haulleville, head of the EU’s International Management Group mission in Palestine. But Gaza’s prospects of economic success are clouded if it remains cut off from the West Bank and from the rest of the world after the Israeli withdrawal, experts have said. According to the World Bank, a lot more than dollars and disengagement is needed if the Palestinian economy, now in shambles, is to revive.

Though one of Gaza’s oldest active fishermen, Suheil Sa’dallah spends most of his time loitering around Gaza’s makeshift fisherman’s port, where dozens of docked boats, including his own, bob gently in the sea. In the face of stringent Israeli restrictions on Palestinian fishing zones, and the absence of a modern industrial port, many fishermen there, like Sa’dallah, can no longer make a living. He talks about the days their catches exceeded 700kg a day “of every fish your heart desires”, when the only limit on fishing zones were as far as the eye could see. A new port would mean better equipment, modern storage facilities for importing and exporting fish, and assuming Israeli restrictions are lifted, improved catches.