In the past few years, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have faced economic stagnation or worse, along with high levels of unemployment especially among the young. Even the previous period of growth was traceable largely to an infusion of cash from foreign donors. Neri Zilber discusses the deep-seated problems facing the Palestinian economy and what would be required to overcome them:
PA officials for their part have to work, clearly, to end the incitement and dampen this wave of violence—there can be no economic development, let alone hope, without stability and security. But the PA also has to do its part in creating an enabling environment for private investment and international-development projects, namely by upholding financial transparency, the rule of law, and the bottom-up institution-building program that has been left to atrophy. With nearly half the PA’s annual budget still being poured into a Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, at some point too a policy proposal will be required to bridge the divide between the two territorial halves of Palestine. . . .
In demographic and economic terms, the Palestinians are already perched on the edge of the precipice. It’s at least part of the reason for the violence of recent months, which itself is probably a foreshadowing of a bigger future eruption.
Read more on Times of Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-business-end-of-palestinian-despair/