The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from resolution, but economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians is flourishing. For instance, agricultural products from Gaza, including tomatoes and eggplant, are sold on the Israeli market in huge quantities. Gaza fishermen sell to the Israeli market during certain seasons. Israel also helps Gaza merchants to a certain extent to export products to markets around the world. From the other side, Israel exports a lot of products to Gaza and the West Bank. By virtue of the Paris Economic Protocol (1994), the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza is in effect based on the importation of products from Israel.
Under the existing economic arrangement and situation, the Palestinian meat market, estimated at NIS 700 million ($197 million) a year, depends primarily on imports from Israel. Dozens of Israeli farms, mostly on kibbutzim, sell fatted calves (weighing 500 kilograms, or 1,102 pounds) for slaughter to butchers in the West Bank.
“We sell to the Palestinians because the Israeli meat market is a very difficult market,” Avshalom Vilan, secretary-general of the union of Israeli farmers and a former Meretz Knesset member, explained to Al-Monitor. “The duopoly of [food makers] Tnuva and Dabbah controls the market and import of large calves. The market wants nothing to do with us small farmers. Because of the development of imports of frozen kosher meat from Europe, it’s not worthwhile for us to sell calves to the kosher market. What’s left for us is the Palestinian meat market.” Since September, however, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has prohibited the importation of calves from Israel.
“We’re stuck with tens of thousands of calves, in which we invested tens of millions, which have reached the weight when they’re ready to sell, and we can’t do anything with them,” Doron Beidich, chairman of the association of calf raisers, told Al-Monitor. “A whole economic branch that provides for hundreds of families is on the brink of collapse. We’re talking about 400 families and 5,000 people employed indirectly who make a living from this industry —drivers, operators of calf food storages, logistical workers, and more.” Based on information obtained by Al-Monitor, it appears that the gross profit for each calf sold on the West Bank is about NIS 700-800 NIS ($197-$225).
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