The Gaza war is speeding up Israel's 'annexation' of the Palestinian economy, say analysts, who argue it has been hobbled for decades by agreements that followed the Oslo peace accords. Samara said that 'technically speaking, there is no Palestinian economy under Israeli occupation -- our economy has been effectively annexed by Israel's'.
While the Israel-Hamas war raging since October 7 has devastated swathes of Gaza, it has also hit the public finances and wider economy of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian economy is largely governed by the 1994 Paris Protocol, which granted sole control over the territories' borders to Israel. Photo: Zain JAAFAR / AFP/FileSamara said that"technically speaking, there is no Palestinian economy under Israeli occupation -- our economy has been effectively annexed by Israel's".
In February, Norway reportedly transferred to the Palestinian Authority about $115 million from Israel following a deal to release some of the frozen taxes.The Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa bemoaned an"unprecedented financial crisis" during which his government's deficit had soared to $7 billion, more than a third of the territories' GDP according to the latest budgetary figures.
Before any factory or shop requiring access to these resources can be built in the West Bank, Israel must grant authorisation, he said.Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he said, both of whom are settlers in the West Bank. "Netanyahu is putting pressure on the Palestinians and signalling to the authority that the levers of the Palestinian economy are in hands," he said.
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