The Economic Strategies of Occupation: Confining Development and Buying-off Peace

Abstract

Since its creation in 1948, the state of Israel’s main goal has been to safeguard its security and survival at the expense of the economic and political rights of the people whose land it is occupying. It, therefore, sought to limit the development of the Palestinian economy inside Israel and, after 1967, inside the occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (oPt). The Palestinian economies in these areas have been subjected to a range of Israeli strategies, such as forced integration, physical separation and asymmetric containment. Although seemingly contradictory at times, these strategies have all been aimed at denying the Palestinian collective the rights and resources vital for their empowerment inside Israel, and the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian economy and sovereign state within the oPt.