Notes On the West Bank and Gaza

(Angels fear to tread in this area, but we’ll rush in anyway.  The language used to discuss the situation is highly politicized.  There are some Israelis who continue to refer to this area as Judea and Samaria and others who prefer “administered territories.” This is not idle word play.  How you describe the situation forces you to take sides on some central issues.)

The status quo in the West Bank includes Palestinian governance of some areas and occupation and control of other areas by the Israel Defense Forces.  The occupation is expensive and breeds resentment among West Bank Palestinians.  There is a small but growing movement in Israel to call attention to the psychological toll of occupation duty on soldiers. 

The West Bank is also home to over 300,000 Israeli citizens.  Some of the settlements are suburbs of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem drawing inhabitants with subsidized housing and typical suburban amenities.  Others are fortified camps surrounded by Palestinian farms and villages, created by young men and women, often recent immigrants to Israel from Russia or the United States, who are ideologically and religiously motivated to expand the Jewish presence.  Some of the settlements are legal under Israeli law; some are not.  Most experts consider them illegal under international law. The push for settlements in the West Bank began shortly after Israel occupied the area during the Six Day War of 1967.  A network of Jewish settlements in the territories was promoted as a way of creating “facts on the ground” that would make it impossible to ever withdraw completely to the old borders of Israel.

The more ideologically and religiously motivated settlers are an important force supporting conservative parties that have (until very recently) been critical components of the Netanyahu government’s right of center majority coalition.  Some of them have been at the center of controversial “price tag” assaults on Palestinian mosques, olive groves and villages.  On a few occasions the government of Israel has moved to forcibly liquidate an illegal settlement.  The images of Israeli soldiers and police officers dragging Jews from their homes broadcast on the TV news have disturbed many Israelis.

The growing settler based economy in the West Bank has become the target of an international campaign, especially in Western Europe.  Israeli owned companies located in the West Bank settlements and Israeli companies that get components or materials from firms in the settlements stamp their goods “Made in Israel.”  Some of the protestors want products relabelled  to reflect their settlement origins; others want them banned from altogether.

Despite the problems posed by the occupation and the vagaries of politics, West Bank Palestinians have seen significant economic improvement in the past decade.  The opposite is true in Gaza.

Particularly after the economic pressures exerted by Israel and foreign governments after the Hamas electoral victory in 2006 and de facto civil war with Fath in 2007, the Gaza economy has regressed and become almost totally dependent on UN humanitarian support for the refugee camps and smuggling. 

Hamas leaders have not proven particularly adept at governance and some are now being accused of the same kind of corruption and high handedness that led to the rejection of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.