Israel/Palestine
Showing Original Post only (View all)The profitable occupation, and why it is never discussed [View all]
There have been several efforts to estimate the cost of the occupation. In 2011, Shir Hever concluded a study that estimated the annual cost at 9 billion USD an average of $1,175 for every Israeli. In 2007, several economists gave a price tag of 50 billion dollars for (then) 40 years of Israeli control and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza. The Adva Center for socio-economical studies is doing the most extensive work on this front. While they dont come up with a bottom line figure, their 2012 report had some interesting data (PDF, Hebrew) including the special budget the IDF received for operations in the West Bank between the years 1989 and 2011 around 13 billion USD (the annual Israeli budget is around 100 billion USD).
Nobody could seriously question the existence of such revenues: From the Israeli companies directly involved in excavating and selling natural resources from the occupied territories the most prominent example being Ahava beauty products (report, PDF); a recent Supreme Court ruling even allowed mining Palestinian land in order to satisfy the need of the growing Israeli real-estate market to the captive market the Palestinian represents for Israel (household Israeli brands can be found anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza). Water is one of the much-needed resources in the Middle East: No less than 80 percent of the Mountain Aquifer located underneath the West Bank is used by Israel and the Israeli settlement, and only 20 percent goes to the Palestinian population (The average Israeli water consumption is 3.5-times the Palestinians).
As land prices rose in Israel in recent decades, the West Bank became a handy source for new housing projects serving the two large metropolitan areas Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. New towns for Jews of less affluent background especially, but not exclusively, Orthodox were built east of the Green line. In the 1980s most of these projects were built north-east of Tel Aviv, near Qalqilia (5 minutes from Kfar Saba, the ads were declaring); the last couple of decades have seen rapid developments in the southeast, near the Modiin area and highway 443. Parts of the West Bank literally became the new suburbs of Tel Aviv.
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ts not always enough to oppose the occupation one needs to understand its appeal as well. I have written in the past on the Israeli addiction to the political status quo, especially on the Palestinian question. I think that an honest analysis of the cost and benefits of Israeli control over the West Bank would support the notion that the occupation represents an Israeli interest, and therefore would never come to an end as a result of an internal Israeli process alone
http://972mag.com/the-profitable-occupation-and-why-it-is-never-discussed/49497/