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Exploiting Palestinian workers is not ‘economic peace’

Palestinians increasingly depend on Israel’s goodwill to open its gates for poor West Bank workers.
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Israel has decided to close the West Bank to Palestinian entries and departures for 11 days, from Oct. 3-14, including the seven-day Sukkot holiday. This closure exposes the big lie of the occupation: the so-called economic peace touted by the right as an alternative to the two-state solution.

The decision to seal off the West Bank for such an unusually long time, following the Sept. 26 terror attack that killed three Israelis in the settlement of Har Adar, imposes an involuntary furlough on the 63,000 Palestinians who will be unable to reach their workplaces in Israel. (This figure was initially 73,000, but the Agriculture Ministry obtained permits for 10,000 laborers.) Assuming the average Palestinian supports four family members, then almost 300,000 people — including the elderly, women and children — have been deprived of over one-third of their modest income in the past month. Once again, it transpires that closures are not simply a security measure or a populist and punitive deterrent move, but a sophisticated control mechanism over the economy of the West Bank and the welfare of its Palestinian residents.

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