Palestinian Shoe Industry Declines in Hebron
Once boasting a thriving shoe industry, Hebron is struggling to compete with cheap Chinese imports and Israeli control of the economy, Jihan Abdalla reports.
HEBRON, West Bank — Once a mainstay of the local economy, Palestinian shoemaking in the West Bank is in decline as businesses struggle to compete with an increasing influx in the local market of cheaper, Chinese-made shoes.
For decades, the city of Hebron was renowned for its skilled cobblers, producing famously comfortable, durable, leather shoes and sandals. According to statistics compiled by the Chamber of Commerce in Hebron, from 1970 until 1990, the city boasted 1,200 lucrative shoe businesses, employing 40,000 people, a third of Hebron’s residents at the time.
Now the sector is in shambles as — in addition to Israeli restrictions on exports — Palestinians are opting for more aesthetic, albeit lower quality, shoes made in China. There are now no more than 250 shoe factories still running, employing only 4,000 workers, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, with a population of 170,000, is famous not only for its shoes and leather, but also for dairy products, ceramic and glass-blowing industries. A major commercial and industrial hub, it contributes about a third of the West Bank's Gross Domestic Product.
