What petroleum is to Saudi Arabia, olive oil is to Palestine. Olives are a staple crop to the rural Palestinian communities traditionally dependent on agriculture. Olive groves represent over 40% of the cultivated area in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and represent almost 80% of the cultivated fruit trees. Each day during the olive harvesting season here in Palestine the media is full of stories of olive oil farmers and olive pickers being harassed, detained, robbed, violently attacked, critically wounded and in some cases even being shot and killed while attempting to harvest their olives on their own land. In the last four years, Israeli forces have uprooted almost 400,000 olive trees with a value of over US$ 60 million. Read more about Olive oil harvest continues to face challenges for Palestinian farmers 

Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories and its destruction and exploitation of their resources had brought the Palestinian economy to the brink of collapse, the Observer for Palestine said this morning as the Second Committee began its discussion of permanent sovereignty of Arab peoples in occupied lands over their natural resources. She said Israel had continued unlawfully to confiscate Palestinian land, build and expand its illegal settlements and bypass roads and raze agricultural land and productive trees. Israel had diverted water, destroyed irrigation wells and flattened, since 2000, more than half of the fertile land in Beit Hannoun, a major agricultural area in northern Gaza. Read more about Israel bringing Palestinian economy to brink of collapse 

Many Gazans have traditionally depended on the sea for their livelihood. Of the estimated 1.3 million people living on the Strip, some 40,000 live off fishing. But Israeli restrictions on the movement of Palestinian fishermen over the past three years have left many destitute, including Sad. Since 2002, Gaza fishermen have been banned from going beyond six nautical miles from the shoreline. There have been long periods when that distance was cut in half and in southern areas of Gaza , like the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, fishing has frequently been totally banned. Read more about Safety net for Palestinian fishermen 

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics conducted another round of the survey on the impact of Israeli measures on the economic conditions of Palestinian households. Data collection was conducted in the second quarter of 2004. The survey found that 226,000 Palestinian households lost more than 50 percent of their usual income and about 22.6 percent of Palestinian households in the Gaza Strip suffered from highly critical living conditions. The survey indicates that 59.7 percent of Palestinian households decreased their income during the Intifada of which 62.5 percent lost more than half of their usual income. Read more about Survey: 70 percent of Palestinian households need assistance 

Unless immediate action is taken to improve the supply capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the Palestinian economy will be effectively transformed into one of subsistence, warns a new UNCTAD study.  The study notes that the protracted conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory has generated profound structural distortions and changes in the functioning of these enterprises that are unlikely to be reversed once political stability is achieved. It examines the SMEs’ contribution to economic growth by shedding light on their life cycle and the factors influencing their establishment, survival, growth and decline before and after the ongoing crisis. Read more about UNCTAD stresses vital role of small-, medium-sized enterprises in rehabilitation of Palestinian economy 

The World Bank released a paper warning that were the disengagement accompanied by the sealing of Gaza’s borders to labor and trade or by terminating supplies of water and electricity to Gaza, it would create worse hardship than is seen today. “Under such circumstances, the Plan’s assertion that Israel is no longer responsible for the population of Gaza will not resonate,” the paper noted. “Nor would donors appreciate the implication that they must bear the humanitarian consequences of this style of disengagement.” The World Bank regarded the Israeli plan as having little impact on the Palestinian economy, as it will only ease internal movement restrictions. Read more about World Bank: Gaza disengagement little impact on Palestinian economy 

Israel’s draft budget fails to address systematic discrimination against Palestinian Arab school children, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the Israeli government. Members of the Israeli cabinet are expected to meet on Sunday to finalize the budget proposal before its submission to Knesset. “Prime Minister Sharon acknowledges that ‘education is the most effective tool to reduce gaps in Israeli society,’ but his budget perpetuates discrimination against children who are Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel,” said Clarisa Bencomo, researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division. “This budget does nothing to close the educational gap between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens.” Read more about Israel's budget discriminates against Palestinian citizens