as the us is really genocidal war completes his fifth month, economic indicators on the west bank show dismal performance, strangled by palestinian worker restrictions and... the of israeli regime holding to palestinian authority tax revenues, well the future looks a dumb, especially since the violence continues in the occupied west bank. hi, i'm welcome to economic divide. coming up in this program, we will take a look at the warning that was issued by the world bank when it came to the west bank economy. now, one of them is cross border wages of $5.5 billion that's been affected by what's going on in the west bank, that is obviously a big worry for the palestinian economy. next. uh, one of the

factors that has contributed to this is the palestinian authority's tax money being withheld. israel collects that money, the funds withheld uh is something that affects the economy of palestine, and uh, this is money that pays 143,00 workers to go spend it, but if they don't have it, how can they do that? next, the israely west bank aggression, over 400 palestinians have been killed, violence continues almost a daily basis and these two facts. factors obviously impacts the economy not only of israel but also of the occupied west bank. israel's genocidal war on the palestinians in the gaza strip and the regime's daily atrocities in the occupied west bank has devastated palestine's economy. apart from

the catastrophic human losses, the onslot has resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of housing units with over 1.2 million individuals currently without homes. the report by the world bank says gross domestic product of the gaza strip plummeted by 80% in the fourth quarter of 2023, while the gdp of the west bank also fell by 22%. for the gaza strip, the combination of pre-existing high levels of poverty, widespread internal displacement, the destruction of homes, fixed assets and productive capacity coupled with the... of economic downturn, realistically means that nearly every resident will live in poverty, at least in the short term. north gaza infrastructure is heavily impacted with over 62% of all roads damaged or destroyed, of primary roads bear the brunts with 92% affected, almost 60% of which are destroyed. secondary roads also face. damage with just

over 60% rendered unusable on the energy front almost 62% of the strip's electricity feeder lines are damaged or destroyed. during the early stages of the onslot israel turned off the supply of electricity to gaza. time now for our online media post. first up taking a look at what was posted on x at world bank has said latest analysis on the economic impact of the conflict. on the palestinian economy shows that the gdp dropped by over 80% in the gaza strip and 22% in the west bank, that's where q4 2023. we then went to a website, israel's war on gaza is strangling the west bank's economy, went to say in the west bank, the gdp has fallen by 22%, unemployment has skyrocketed to 30%, up from 14% before the onslot. well, they called the war, we called the onslot, also saying because of the supply chain bottlenex prices are going. up, then incomes are lower

and the demand is shaking. next, issue that we have paid more attention to later on in the program, the us treasury secretary janet yellan, urging israel to restore economic ties to the west bank. she said that she had called on prime minister benjamin netanyao of israel, to reduce barriers to commerce for palestinians. then uh, we took a look at another website, it said the gaza war, again they call it war, we call it an onslaught or aggression, turns the west bank into economic time bomb. what not to say israel's decision to ban cross-border workers and block palestinian funds has pushed the local economy to the brink of collapse. we squeeze in one more, the world bank warns on the dire state of the palestinian economy because of the continuing war and its effect on employment and consumption on the west bank. the palestinian authority finds itself in a spiraling fiscal crisis which can only cope with by increasing rears of payments and through foreign aid. show so bad. the

occupied west banks economy is doing. all right, let's uh bring in our guests for our first uh q&a of the program. joining us is oliver boyde barrett. he is the ameritus professor of ohio. and california university, he's author of many books uh such as the conflict narratives in syria. oliver boy barrett, welcome to economic devide, taking a look at the i guess warning that was issued by the world bank on the dire state of the palestinian economy, uh, also on the gaza strip, both are not doing well, there isn't much hope for recuperation at this point, wondering how long this is going to take, because the onslot as we speak is still continuing, and uh, what do you think about the future? the occupied westmank given the fact that you have the the aggression in the gaza strip and the violence that's uh a daily occurrence there in the occupied west bank. what one thing is absolutely for sure is that the uh gravity of the situation uh is

unprecedented uh the situation is extremely uh grim uh as i think you just mentioned we've seen a fall uh in the palestinian. uh economic activity of something like uh 80% uh in the last quarter uh we have seen a total fall off in the uh work permits that would be available for uh gasan uh workers uh in the in israel and uh we are seeing that uh on the west bank uh uh palestinian workers are no longer uh being allowed to work. uh uh on the on the settlements and on other construction activity. uh, you mentioned construction activity, i want to interrupt you there, because we keep hearing about that in terms of how uh palestinian workers uh are not permitted uh to not only work there, but how

much they contribute to that sector? can you expand a little bit more for us as to how that stands in terms of their contribution to the construction sector? palestinian, the construction industry in in israel uh... is very very badly uh hurt and palestinian worker palestinian workers uh have typically provided 65 to 70% of the labor on israeli projects including actually including uh on the settlements in the uh in the west bank so there's absolutely no uh is absolutely clear that the extent of the uh damage to the palestinian economy. is immense. all right, thank you for that. at least uh, you gave us an idea there. let's bring in uh our next guest gabriel suarez. he served in the ecumenical accompanyments program in palestine and israel and hibron and jericho. gabriel suarez, welcome to economic divide. uh, the economy of the west bank is uh in

trouble. you've got 170,00 palestinians that have been taken out of the economy because of this really regime preventing them from uh coming to work. a decline in consumption as a result, uh, you have a reduction. in the tax revenues is another example result of that uh restriction and this is money that israel collects on behalf of the pa, how can there be any hope for the west bank economy um when you have those types of uh practices by the israeli regime and uh what are we looking at uh when it comes to the future when there's such violence happening in the occupied west bank as a whole the situation in in the west bank was a really suffering from the since the beginning of 2002 there has been a stepped up in violence and restrictions with the new government, settler violence was very much problem with palestinians, both that in their own places like in the agriculture, having their lands taken or restricted or

even their harvest being stolen or burned by israeli fanatical settlers and also the restrictions for even working inside those big settlements, those israeli sett in the west bank, and of course the dependency that they have on the remittisence from both in the government sector, but also from outside, so it's very much captive economy, as i said before, which it limits the prospect for freedom, there has been many different world bank reports that the restrictions and the takeover of land by israel takes a lot from the potentials of the palestinian. economy everywhere in the west bank, it's time now for the inf news section of the program. first up argentina's economy, well we picked

that last week actually, so let's see what we got for you this week uh, this one uh is due to the cash that is requesting from the imf, now the latin american country already owes the imf. some $44 billion dollars and uh this is not good news because one of the reasons uh is that argentines are blaming astery austerity measures for argentina's worst economic crisis in two decades. thousary measures, cutting jobs does not help contribute to the wheels of the economy to move forward, so subscribing to the imf again for argentina, that's not going to be good news, we'll have to wait and see. next up, uh, the financial system of the west is under the spotlight for the russian president, he said that is destroying its own financial system, according to vladimir putin. policies enacted by the us and the eu, according to him, have discredited western banking and its currencies. next up we go to uh news from uh the continent of africa, in particular sudan, its economy has contracted 40% as this war

there is raging on, state revenues has dipped by over 80%, the economy is continuing to shrink by about 20% projected for the year 2024. uh next another economy uh that we picked is india's economy now may have done well the gdp um has grown quite a bit but it's masking economic. challenges: the amount of growth was substantial for the year 2023, about 7.3%, yet the private sector response was disappointing, and disinvestment increased, and that's pretty major for india, the amount of the increase was almost 29%, so that's not good news for the indian economy. now to sustain this growth, the forthcoming indian government must tackle rising inflation uh and economic challenges overall, but rising inflation is something they have to watch out for. with the topics that we picked for the infinite section, if you have anything in your mind and wherever part of the world that you're at, do send them to us,

contact information is coming up. in late 2023, south africa filed case at the international court of justice icj over the israeli apart regime's genocidal war against palestinians in the besieg gaza strip. south africa stated that the televive regime has failed to uphold its commitments under the 1948 genocide convention. south africa filed the lossit against the israeli regim at the end of december, noting that israel's actions in gaza that sited last october are genocided in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the palestinian national, racial and ethnic group. we have a special guest to discuss the topic today. he's none other than south african ambassador to iran, his excellency. dr. francis molloy. thank you, mr. ambassador for your time today. thank you very much for inviting me. it's a pleasure to

be here. section of the program. the economy the west bank, uh, when you take a look it is one that operated under a siege. income disparities, as an example between palestinian economy and that of israel, as a result of this restriction, wages of these workers accounted for $5.5 billion annually, well that's been taken out of the... economy of the west bank, it contributed to about a third of the combined

economy of both the west bank and the gaza strip. next up we take a look at another factor which prevents money from flowing into the economy, the withholding of the palestinian authorities tax revenues by the israeli regime. those revenues collected by israel on behalf of the pa amounted to around $188 million monthly to pay 150,000 employees. now as an example, israel had with held $275 million as you see there for the year 2023 in these tax revenues, that includes cash collected for the prior months that was still with tel aviv, but only in the february of this year, and that's not that long ago, they released 14 million dollars. this is how israel sways control over the pa. next, let's take a look at uh what has occurred in the uh gdp contraction uh area. when it comes to both the gaza strip and the west bank for the gaza strip uh minus 80%, i

mean it's it's just incredible, of course shouldn't be that much of a surprise, you have uh 60 to 70% of the buildings there that have been decimated by the israeli regime forces, when it comes to the occupied west bank itself, minus 20%, and that's uh even that's a that's a good drop considering what is happening there in the west bank which we're going to get to uh in a second, but this uh contraction could even be lot worse, let's... take a look at why i'm saying this contraction could be lot worse, next up we'll show you the different areas that we picked in terms of the crisis that's ongoing in the west bank, you have the palestinian skill. as of october 7th to amount to 412 so far, taking a look at the palestinians that have been arrested uh 8,00, some figures put that as high as 10,00, and that's a lot, that's from october 7th, mind you, and then homes that have been demolished, another factor showing the crisis that's ongoing there, 200, uh, these uh, this is figure that the un has

uh released including the numbers that have been arrested, so that's what's happening in the occupied west bank, um, the the other uh thing that we need to look at and this is on side notes because of the operational flood uh we're going to see what i'm talking about in this next uh uh pointer here if we can take a look at that uh is the rising popularity of uh isma hania and hamas in general uh in the west bank it used to be at around 12% but now the popularity of hamas has uh almost caught ruble to uh 42% so it shows how operational flood in terms of its aim and has actually gained more popularity in the west bank and that's very important moving forward uh in terms of what's going to happen in the west bank. well, let's take look at uh an overview of what challenges the west bank faces and these are just general in uh nature economic crisis uh is uh obviously one of the things that the west bank is facing. uh, a contributing factor to that is the conflict that's uh entailed there. we

talked about the demolitions, about the abductions and also the number of palestinians killed. financial challenges. one of the big ones such as the pa uh tax revenue being with held and also movements uh restriction of palestinians in general leads to some of the major challenges that the west bank is facing. let's bring back our guests and uh see what uh they think about all this uh we have oliver boyde barrett rejoining us ametus professor of ohio and california university author of many books like conflict narratives in syria. oliver boy barrett welcome back economic divide. i'd like to zoom in a announcement. slash warning that the us treasury secretary actually issued against netanyahu where it's she said that uh he needs to take steps to prevent the collapse of the west bank economy as far as i recall the u.s. has a almost a direct hand in contributing to the uh west bank economy uh not in favor of the palestinians such as settlements the freedom of movement

indirectly these are financially supported by the u.s. so isn't the us actually responsible in some regards? yeah, i think essentially um, robert ken, sorry, rfk junior uh, recently got it right when he described uh, the the role of israel for the united states is as kind of aircraft, aircraft carrier is the term that he used, so the united for the united states uh, i think he has this right, israel is kind of permanent, permanently anchored um aircraft carrier uh and his purposes to uh ensure the us foreign policies in the in the middle east are carried out, and that us hegemony is sustained, and that uh efforts to resist or to compete with us higem are suppressed. all right, let me let

me stop you there and ask you about if you can elaborate a little bit elaborate a little bit more. about what you mean by that? i mean uh, when you say for example that israel carries out us interest in the region, what exactly uh is israel doing for the us, that the us is so keen on supporting uh israel all out and almost everything if not everything. the the function once upon a time under the shar of persia, this was the function for the united states that iran uh once played uh up until the uh revolution of 1979. when the role that that iran at once played for us empire was shifted to to to israel, and i think that is the fundamental purpose of israel to to the united states, but of course there are now this relationship is now consolidated by the financial links between

israeli or israeli friendly oligarchs in the united states, and the israeli regime and the voting importance of pro israeli sentiment for in particular for the democratic party in the united states, the relationship between israel and the united states is extremely complicated and it basically favorers israeli israeli and not palestinian interests. all right, thank you for that. let me bring... and gabriel uh suarez, bring him back, he serve in the acumenical accompanyment program in palestine and um israel in hibron and jericho. gabriel suarez, welcome back economic divide uh. the um way that the us is uh almost uh steering uh the uh post-onslot scenario is is now quite evident uh we know

that uh the us president joe biden wants a reform pa in place and then we have now uh janet dellen for example the secretary general coming out i'm sorry the us treasury secretary coming out and saying um and warning israel that it needs to take control the west bank economy put it back into gear make uh sure that it doesn't uh fall apart, why do you think uh she has done that? do you think it's because this becomes an existential threat to israel, the west bank economy falls apart? mean it's it's a it's it's a kind of a bargain because at the same time they want to allow the settlements to try to expand to do it from israel to maintain control of the west bank, there is a director over acc which is 60% of the west bank, the major resources the... water is controlled by israel, more than 90% of the waters in the west bank is controlled by israel, while less than 20% goes to the palestinans and so there is a takeover and

and and and the us has been part of that during the oslo agreement, it has broken that takeover by allowing israel to do what it wants, but not, but when when palestinians try to go to the un or try to move towards prison israel, it always back israel completely, so basically completely - diplomatic immunity thoughts violations that are pretty clear against international laws in every single sense of the word, in every major can agree on that. the private sector in the west bank in gaza is estimated to have suffered losses of around $1.5 billion production during the first two months. the conflict equivalent to $25 million and losses per day. before the onslot, the world bank had projected growth of $3.2% in 2023, for the economies of the gaza strip and the west bank combined, but

it's updated estimate is economic contraction of 6.4%. this means a loss of $2.5 billion when it comes to his gdp. the palestinian authority has also been hit hard. its independent revenues fell 10% in 2023 in comparison with estimates before the onslot, and it would appear that the situation is only getting worse. this deficit has grown fivefold to over $500 million dollars and it is already cutting its employees paid drastically. israel has also canceled work permits for over 170,000 palestinian workers, which has weighed heavily on demand of the west bank. the west bank economy is mainly driven by the cities in which the... been the most confrontations, including an nobles and which are under constant military rates from israel. hello and welcome to the quicktech

section, i'm mahian. this past week had major development when it came to the palestinian authority that governs the west bank, and that was the resignation of the pa government. palestinian prime minister. muhammad shataya and his government tendered their resignations to palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. many observers regard this as the first step towards forming new technocratic palestinian administration to govern the palestinian territories and to oversee the reconstruction of gaza after israel's oneslot. at the same time there were critical statements made against israel and the prime minister benjamin netanyahu that may be related. to the pa government's resignation, it came from the us treasury secretary janet yellen who urged israel to restore economic tice to the occupied west bank. the treasury secretary called on prime

minister benjamin netanyahu of israel to reduce barriers to commerce for palestinians to increase commercial engagement with the west bank. in the letter, mezielen hold for israel to reinstate work permits for palestinians and reduce barriers to commerce. what does janet? yellen's critique have to do with the palestinian authorities government resignation, because the us president joe biden had a stated before that he would like for a reform pa to rule over the gaza strip, although that is something rejected by hamos. there were reports like how the us was looking to prop up palestinian authority financially to prepare for post war gaza rule, in which a reform pa was central to the biden administration's vision for post. gaza, but ramala says it may run out of money by month's end. this report came amid warnings from officials in romela that the pa was on

the verge of running out of money. which could jeopardize its ability to govern the gaza strip once israel's honot against palestinians is over. that is it for this quick take section. if you want to send us your comments or if you have any questions, send them to us. contact info is coming up. i'm mattia bosan and i'll see you next week. the economy of the west bank, the gaza strip and palestine as a whole will not have any chances of a real economic recovery, unless the broader palestinian problem is resolved. the occupied west bank's downward economic spiral has not even gained momentum. now the us knows this, which is why it has ordered israel to make sure that that does not happen, because if that happens, if the was bank becomes anything even close to what's

happening there in the gaza strip, well that would... proved to be an existential threat to israel. do you agree with that? please let us know. contact information is behind me. it was great having you with us and i hope to see you next week. for me. an entire team here at economic devide. it's goodbye until then. one, you're watching ball news from tehan, i'm your host.

and it's worse than that, they are using islamophobia to demonize palestine solidarity, arrêtez l'occupation si vous les terroris.