2021

Palestine

Fiche pays
12/12/2021
Palestine represents a particular case of study, the only country in the MENA region that still
colonized, by Israel. According to international law, three conditions are necessary to create a
state: a population, an authority and a territory, Palestine fulfils the first two conditions,
nonetheless in the last condition, the territory of Palestine is occupied and controlled by Israeli
authorities. More than 70 years of colonization was marked primarily by crime wars and an
authoritarian regime.

After the World War II, a great number of jews had to immigrate to the newly Jewish state, this
creates a problem of settlement for the occupier authorities, where are these now Israeli’s going
to live? the perfect solution for this problem seemed at the time was to expel more than 350.000
Palestine’s from their home, they destroyed families and killed thousands of innocent civilians.
this event is known as nakba which means in Arabic a catastrophe. These Palestinians either
settled down In Gaza and the west bank or in refugee camps around these two regions, or in close
states such Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Before 1948, Palestinians were the majority but after this
ethnical cleansing mission, Israeli took the majority. Over the years more Jewish moved to Israel,
this caused a problem for the

The statement of Balfour was the base of the creation a Palestine colonizer, this led to a very
complicated political conflict, an unfair conflict between Palestine and Israel backup by the
United States and the United Kingdom. Palestine history is characterized by a continuous conflict
to reach basic human rights, the colonizer Israel deprived Palestinians from their most basic
rights, The majority of the economy relay on international aid. The institutional situation in
Palestine is very complicated with an internal conflict between Farah and Hamas, the first one
was created to defend the Palestinian identity, the second one was created by Israel.

ted by Israel to weaken Hamas during the first intifada. This internal conflict has effects on the
weak Palestinian economy, while these two groups fight over the power the Israeli use many
tactics to make Palestinians living even worse. Palestine is a particular case in the region MENA,
where small mistakes or failures made by the Palestinian leadership had huge consequences on
the Palestinian land and the daily life of Palestinians.
Name and geography position

The world Palestine was used by Greeks as “philistines “this word designated the land of the
coastal region between Jaffa and Gaza. It was until the British colonized that land that it was an
establishment of a mandated territory, it was the first time the territory was limited, Palestine was
in the East-Mediterranean and was surrounded by Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. 1

23

1
Palestine: On the History and Geography of a Name, Lewis, Bernard, January 1980

2
http://www.edmaps.com/html/palestine_in_ten_maps.html
It is important to mention the historical change of the Palestine territory, in fact with the promise
of Belfour in 1917, in 1947 after the creation of the United Nations, the peace organization
proposed a new map of the Palestinian territory, 55% of the land would go Israel the new state
and 45% to Palestine

In 1948 the Zionist forces expelled more than 750.000 Palestinians out of their home, and took
control of 78% of the land. this event is mostly known as “nakba” where only 22% was left for
Palestine.

4
The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, Eugene L. Rogan, Avi Shlaim, Cambridge University Press,
page 16
 5

Moving to 1995 where the Palestinian authority and Israel signed a peace agreement known as
the “Oslo accords “, the agreement divided the west bank to three areas: Area A, Area B, Area C

• 6

5
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/26/palestine-and-israel-mapping-an-annexation
66
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/26/palestine-and-israel-mapping-an-annexation
As of 2021, Palestine control 6020 km2, 365 km in gaza and 5655 km2 in the west ban

the political history:

1912: The political history of Palestine began with the Othman empire losing the Palestinian
territory to the British in spring 1912.

1917: the British secretary of foreign affairs Arthur James Balfour announced the establishment
of Palestine as a Jewish state for Jewish people and that the formalization of the project would
start in 1922.

7
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567
1936: The lack of leadership in the Palestinian political scene seemed to have frustrated the
Palestinians, this frustration led to a six-month general in 1936, it was an unexpected Strick that
shock both the British authorities and the elites in Palestine.

1947:
• February 1974 : the British cabinet announced that they are leaving the Palestine
territory and decided to leave this issue to the united nations, the Palestinian leadership
decided from the start to boycott the UN proceedings, they were more in favor of
negotiations.
• November 1947: The commission granted the Israelis the minority over 56% of the land
like previously explained vs 44 % to Palestinians the majority of the population, with an
international corpus separatum encompassing Jerusalem.
• In March 1947: the Zionist leadership declared that they would seek to take over the
land and expel the indigenous population by force,. A month after the adoption of the
resolution, the Israeli began attacking Palestinians villages and neighborhoods, assaults
and attacks that number of victims exceeded 75.000. After these attacks units of the units’
all-Arab volunteers entered Palestine, more than 100.000 were deployed, Similar numbers
were deployed by the Jewish community. In the beginning of the war the Arabs had the
upper hand in this conflict, Egypt was controlling a big part on the southern part of
Palestine, and Jordan was controlling the west bank and east Jerusalem, nonetheless soon
there was a switch in Israel tactics, Israel took control of the Palestine entire territory
except the west bank and Gaza.

1948: At the same time as the war with Arabs troops, Israeli was cleaning or emptying more than
370 villages, this event mostly known as Nakba which means a disaster in Arabic.
• February 1948: the colonizer force managed to empty five villages in one single day,
the next target were the urban centers of Palestine, approximately 250,000 Palestinians
were uprooted in this phase, which was accompanied by several massacres, most notable
of which was the Deir Yassin massacre where 100.000 were slaughtered when the village
was stormed.
 • 15 may 1948: a series of attacks resulted in the departure of 340,000 Palestinians overall
and the devastation of many of the Arab majority’s key urban economic, political, civic,
and cultural centers, these Palestinians escaped to state neighbors: Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza (the latter two constituted 22 percent of Palestine
that was not conquered by Israel).

1987: the first “Al intifada” began in December 1987 in the refugee’s camp in Gaza that housed
more than 850.000 refugees, the majority of these refugees were children under fifteen. The
intifada broke when an Israeli army vehicle killed four Palestinians. The Intifada lasted from
December 1987 to 1993, these years were marked by mass demonstration by young Palestinians
in all parts of Palestine, the Intifada was also marked by strikes, boycotts and withholding taxes
and tactics of civil disobedience. The Intifada made hundreds of victims and left thousands
wounded, the majority were woman and children.
1993: Through the Intifada, the PLO managed to secure the public support. In 1993, the first
agreement between the PLO and Israel was signed. The Oslo agreement as previously mentioned
signified the formal Israeli recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian
national authority. It also included provisions to transfer territory in Gaza and Jericho to direct
PLO control. Nonetheless the agreement served the Israelis authorities to have the control on
important areas of the territories.

1996: the first Palestinian authority elections were organized in 1996 within the Palestinian
territories. This event is important as it’s the first step towards a democratic self-rule of the
Palestinian authority. Yasser Arafat was elected president and Fatah won the majority in the
parliament.

2000: The second intifada began in 2000 and lasted four years, this one the violence was
pervasive. The second intifada began during the visit of opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to
Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, this visit led to the massacre of thirteen Israeli Palestinian citizen.
The second intifada was marked by suicide bombing and attacks from both sides.
2002: In April the colonizer destroyed the Jenin refugee camp. The two major consequences of
this second intifada are that this revolution showed the weaknesses of the Palestinian leadership,
it showed the absence of a national strategy the second consequence is that Israel in the
international scene is not seen as colonizers and oppressors.
2002: on the basics of the Oslo agreement, the Palestinian liberation organization through the
legal committee prepared the project of constitution the constitution project will be promulgated
by the president Yasser Arafat in 2003.

2006: the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, the president elected was
Mahmoud Abas, in the Palestinian parliament the Hamas group won the majority of seats.

2007: the group Hamas seized power in the Gaza strip which caused the Palestinian
constitutional system to collapse, the consequences of the seizure were a long complicated
internal political conflict, this will lead to two the separation of power between two groups: Fatah
was controlling the west bank and Hamas in Gaza. On June 2007, the president Mahmoud Abbas
declare a state of emergence of the basics of article 43 of the constitution that allow the president
to take decisions with the power of law when the parliament Is not in session which give the
president both the executive and legislative power

2014: Moving to 2014 where a war between Hamas and Israel occurred, it began when Hamas
fired from Gaza strip 4000 rockets, it killed six civilians. Israel fired back and launched more
than 6000 air attacks, 50.000 artillery and tank shells “According to the commander of the Israeli
air force, there were several hundred attacks by such advanced aircraft on targets in Gaza, most
of them using these powerful bombs.” Thousands were killed and injured but this war was
beyond human mass killing, houses and universities were ruined and more than 450.000 were
forced to leave their homes

2017: after so many attempts, the PLO finally reaches an agreement with Hamas, the group
handled control of Gaza to the PLO.
2020: the two groups reached an agreement to organize elections after nearly 15 years, this
election is still not organized as the president decided to postpone the parliamentary and the
presidential elections.
Population
The Palestinian central Bureau estimated in 2020 the population to be 5.1 million, the west bank
60% (3 million people) and Gaza 40% (2 million people). Refugees constitutes 42.2 % of the
Palestinian population in 2017, their number was estimated at 1.98 million refugees at that time,
as their number in the West Bank reached about 741 thousand refugees, representing 26.3% of
the total population of the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, there are about 1.24 million refugees or
66.1% of the total population of the Gaza Strip”. The growth rate is 2.4% per year, which is 33%
higher than Israel growth rate, expert project that by 2035, in fact the Palestinian population is the
youngest in the region, with a birth rate of over 4 children to every woman. Palestinians living in
all around the world are estimated to be around 6.2 million.

8
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/palestine-population
Relgion :
Islam 85 % Majorly in Gaza strip

Christianity 6% Jerusalem

Judaism Less than 5% Jerusalem

Political organization

Organization of power:

The executive authority: the executive branch is held by the PLO Mahmoud Abbas, in 2006 in the
last elections the Fatah organization did not in the majority so they created a coalition, the
president named Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh on the basics of article 45 of the constitution “The
President of the National Authority shall appoint the Prime Minister and authorize the latter to
constitute his government. The President shall have the right to dismiss the Prime Minister or to
accept his resignation and to request him to convene the Council of Ministers.” 9 A year of
conflict between the two organizations resulted in a military conflict for a week that ended with
the president dismissing the whole government and Hamas taking over Gaza, so now the
Palestinian territory is split in two the west bank controlled by the Palestinian authority and Gaza
controlled by Hamas, the Palestinian authority decisions does not apply in Gaz as Hamas believe
the president decision are not legitimate. Since the dismissal of the elected government, the
president Mahmoud Abbas have been selecting and approving cabinet members. 10

9
https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Palestine_2005.pdf?lang=en
10
https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2021-posts/1-7-21the-dissolution-of-the-palestinian-legislative-council
Legislative authority: the elections of 2006 gave the majority of seats to Hamas, after the control
of Hamas of the Gaza strip, the representatives elected from the Hamas organization boycotted all
meetings of the Palestinian legislative council “ the PLC has not convened in Ramallah (West
Bank) with a quorum whilst Hamas has instead held PLC meetings in Gaza” 11 . After the
president announced the emergency state, the president now held both the executive and
legislative power, which means the Palestinian parliament was not working for more than 15
years. It is important to precise that although the president was in control of legislative power, the
elected parliaments were still getting paid even though their mandate should have ended in 2010.
In 2017, the two organizations reconciled, Hamas eventually gave the control keys to Fatah but
this reconciliation did not lead to a refunction of the Parliament, in fact in late 2018, the president
dissolved the parliament in order to organize new democratic elections, the election till this day is
still not held.12

The judicial authority: the Palestinian judicial system is composed by the attorney general office,
the Bar association, the high judicial council, according to the article 18 of judicial authority law
the high judicial council is responsible for the nomination of judges, these nominations are
approved by the president “Judicial positions shall be filled pursuant to a decision of the
President of the National Authority, based upon the nomination of the High Judicial Council”13.
The Palestinian court system is structured according to article 6 of the same law as shari’a or
religious courts, high constitutional court, regular courts that consists of high courts (The Court
of Cassation and The High Court of Justice), courts of Appeal, courts of first instance and
Magistrate courts. One of the major challenges judges’ faces is a parallel justice system between
Gaza and the west bank, another challenge is the Israeli occupation. The President is also accused
for not respecting the independency of justice intended by the article 97 of constitution, by
appointing loyalists in the high constitutional court. In September 2018, the association of judges
announced the resignation of 14 out of 27 of judges of the high court in protest of the non-respect

11
https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2021-posts/1-7-21the-dissolution-of-the-palestinian-legislative-council
12
https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/palestine_legislative_council/
13
https://security-
legislation.ps/sites/default/files/law/Judicial%20Authority%20Law%20No.%201%20of%202002.pdf
of the independence of the judiciary. In July 2019 the president dissolved the high judicial
council, replacing it with a Transitional High Judicial Council for one year. 14

Political parties’ system:

The Palestinian party’s role in Palestine conflict with Israel goes beyond the role of parties in a
state, Fatah and Hamas in particular engage in military operation, it is important to acknowledge
the specified of political scene.
Fatah: Fatah is the dominant political party ever since the creation of the Palestinian national
authority, it’s a left-wing party, part of the global organization of social democratic socialist and
labor parties. Fatah was founded in Kuwait in 1959, it’s a party that set two ultimate goals: the
creation of Palestinian state and the return of the refugees of Palestinians refugees, the second
depended a lot on the first goal in the middle of the 60’s. ever since the establishment of
Palestinian authority, the power has been in the hands of Fatah.

Hamas: Hamas stand for the “Islamic Resistance Movement. In the beginning they defined
themselves as “the powerful arm of the Association of Muslim Brothers,” 15 but separated
themselves for the Muslim Brotherhood’s social and charitable network. Hamas ultimate goal
was “to raise the banner of Allah on every inch of Palestine.” 16 . This party is considered a
terrorist group by many international actors including the US. At the surprise of many scholars,
Hamas won the majority in elections 2006 beating Fatah.
The Popular Front for the Liberation: the party was created after the occupation of Israeli of
the west bank, Gaza in 1967. It’s particular group different from the two groups mentioned, they
rejected the idea of Arab movement and “the party did relatively well in elections 2006 in
Ramallah, Bethlehem, and the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian National Initiative’s: this party was founded by Mustafa Barghouti, Ibrahim
Dakkak, Edward Said, and Haider Abdel Shafi in 2002 during the second intifada. This group get

14
https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/justice_system/
15
Political Parties in Palestine: Leadership and Thought, Michael Bröning, Palgrave Macmillan US

16
Political Parties in Palestine: Leadership and Thought, Michael Bröning, Palgrave Macmillan US
distinguished by other groups by its non-violence ideology. These founders of this party were
critical of the authority’s regime of Fatah.

The Palestinian people party’s: A strong socialist party that roots goes back in 1919 with the
creation anti-Zionist Palestine Communist Party (PCP). During the first intfada, this group
played a key role in organizing the demonstrations but with the collapse of Soviet Union, the
group lost all their influence

17

As seen in the graphic, Hamas won 74 by a large marge over Fatah that dominated for a long
period the political scene. Other little groups only a few seats, the two major groups were Fatah
and Hamas which explains the tension between the two groups.

17
https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/municipal-elections-2021/
 Local governance
Today, there are is 16 governors called mohafazat in Arabic. These governors are appointed by
the president and are controlled directly by the minister of Interior, with the political division in
2007 the Hamas group refused all the governors appointed by the president on the basics that
these decisions are unconstitutional. As for the missions of these governors, they are in charge of
“the local police force the supervision of all government agencies in the district and of
coordinating state services such as youth and sports, health, agriculture, provincial environmental
planning, culture, arts, tourism, assignment of land and building of primary and secondary
schools”.
On a local level, there 121 Palestinian municipalities: 96 in the west bank and 25 in Gaza, these
municipalities and village councils fall under the control of ministry of local government. The
local elections were held in 2005, 2012 and 2017 without the participation of Hamas and only on
the west bank territory. The results of elections in the west bank “The December 2021 vote saw a
turn-out of 66.14% with independent candidates (i.e., those with no official connection to a
political party) winning over 70% of the contested seats” 18
Trust in institutions:

With the political separation of institutions on two different regions with each have its own
structure, which led to a social trust, a study done by the Arab barometer polls shows how
Palestinian youth lost trust in political institutions, the study compared the attitude of youth from
18 to 25 years old in 2006 and those 28-35 years old in 2016, not the same persons were
interviewed in the second time. in 2006, a 69% percent of the youth selected expressed their trust
in institutions, while in 2016, only 36% expressed their trust. 19 In a 2009 survey by the
Palestinian center a survey showed that 65% of the respondents believed in the PNA there is
corruption and 51% believed it would increase in the future. 20

18
https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/municipal-elections-2021/
19
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/08/palestinians-dont-trust-institutions-
what-that-means-for-peace-50-years-after-the-arab-israeli-war/
20
Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Palestine, transparency international
 Human rights
The situation of Human rights in Palestine is quite complicated, as the Israeli government have
put Multiple policies to enforce their control over Palestinian territories and by there for limit
Palestinian rights, according to the human rights watch organization “authorities have
dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity
to varying degrees of intensity.” One of the most outrageous policies put in place is the separation
of the territories, the Israeli occupation treats differently the two territories “Israel subjects
Palestinians to draconian military law and enforces segregation, largely prohibiting Palestinians
from entering settlements. In the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel imposes a generalized closure,
sharply restricting the movement of people and goods and in annexed East Jerusalem, which
Israel considers part of its sovereign territory but remains occupied territory under international
law, Israel provides the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living there
with a legal status that weakens their residency rights by conditioning them on the individual’s
connections to the city, among other factors. This level of discrimination amounts to systematic
oppression” but this is not the only abuse Israelis have committed “ 21 Many of these abuses,
including categorical denials of building permits, mass residency revocations or restrictions, and
large-scale land confiscations, have no legitimate security justifications; others, such as the extent
of restrictions on movement and civil rights, fail any reasonable balancing test between security
concerns and the severity of the underlying rights abuse.”22 . Israel also do not respect Palestine
ethnical community “the Palestinian Bedouin” these 90.000 cannot live lawfully in their
communities which they have lived in for decades. Over two million people in Gaza suffer from
the restriction of entry and exit of goods, this restriction have devastated the economy,
Palestinians living in Gaza rely mainly on international human aid “Families in Gaza in recent
years have had to make do without centrally provided electricity for between 12 and 20 hours per
day, depending on the period. Water is also critically scarce; the UN considers more than 96
percent of the water supply in Gaza “unfit for human consumption.” 23

21
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/israel/palestine
22
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/israel/palestine
23
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/israel/palestine
 Environmental justice
One of the main environmental problems of Gaza is potable water. due to the restriction of entry
of goods, “Sewage has infiltrated Gaza’s aquifer and is flowing untreated into Gaza’s coastal
waters, damaging marine life and health.” Gaza scarce water is unfitted for human consumption
this leads to child deaths and illnesses. In the west bank where Israel controls more than 60% of
the land, they consume six times as much water as the West Bank’s 2.9 million Palestinian
residents. Palestine was known by their olive trees but since 1967, Israel have uprooted 800.000
olive trees. 24In the Jordan valley, farmers have difficulty to irrigate their crops due to the
restriction of water, without the proper water allocation it become a rain fed agriculture which the
climate change make it even worse and make the Palestinians frames extremely vulnerable and
most likely to lose their livelihoods

Socio-economic situation
Education system and access system:
Palestinian families are attached to education, the UNICEF Organization estimates that the level
kids enrolled in basic education can get to 95.4 per cent, but for child with disabilities, they are
more vulnerable to drop out.
in the kindergarten level: the numbers can go till 60.7% for 4-year-old child’s, the background
of the family influences the level enrollment “Only 26% of children from the poorest households
attend Kindergarten compared to 44.5% of those from the wealthiest households.”.
basic education: this level lasts ten years, the level of drop out for boys in this level is higher for
boys (4.3%) than girls (1.3 %), the mother education also affect the attendance of school
“Mothers’ educational background affects attendance of children: 7.9% of boys whose mothers
have basic or no education do not attend school. For mothers with higher education the figure
was only 1.1%.”. In literacy, more 52.7% demonstrate reading skills, girls show a level of 47.8%
whereas boys show a significantly higher percentage of 57.3%. the level of wealth of family also
affects the attendance.

24
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/11/28/palestine-is-a-climate-justice-issue
25

Secondary school: the level of drop out in this level rise by 21.5%, which means “More than
twice the number of boys does not attend school (29.8%) compared to girls (11.6%).” In the west
bank over a third of boys (36.8%) do not attend. For the Gaza Strip this figure is 21.3%.”
Higher education: when it comes to higher education, in 2016, the enrollment rates are 25.8 %
between the age 18-24 old. Education is the field the attract the most student with more than
7.305 students enrolled, services come last with only 622 students. The number of Palestinian
higher education institutions is 49 divided along the west bank and Gaza strip. 26

25
Child development data from the 2019/2020 multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS)

26
https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/Higher_Education_2020_03E.html
27

With the Pandemic, it became hard for students in particular those from poor backgrounds to join
virtual classes making it hard for a lot of students to access education.

Unemployment and employment trends

According to the Palestinian bureau of statistics, in 2018 unemployment rates is very high: 17.6%
in the west bank and 52% in Gaza. it is high in the Gaza strip due to closing imposed by the
Israeli authorities. the rate is particularly high among youth 42%, 64% among young women
and 38% among young men.

28

27
Distribution of Higher Education Institutions in Palestine by Type of Institution and Region, 2020/2021 :
https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/Higher_Education_2020_01E.html
28
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Labour Market in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, A Forecasting
Model Assessment September 2020
The Durant of unemployment can go over a year for 60 % youth and 33% of youth for two years.
29
The pandemic made the unemployment situation even worse “The average monthly wage for
those with a steady source of income in Gaza is a mere 682 ILS (about $207). Many people earn
below the minimum wage, making it difficult for Palestinians to pull themselves out of
poverty.”30
In 2000, following the outbreak of the second intifada, Israel prohibited Palestinian workers from
Gaza from working in Israel which pushed the rise of unemployment further more
Poverty
Poverty is very high in the Palestinian society, according to the PCBS, in 2017 more than 29.9
Palestinians live in poverty, the criteria to choose these individuals is that they are unable to
afford the necessities, clothing and shelter. In refugees camp, the poverty is accented “33.8
percent of Gazans and 29.3 percent of those in Palestinian refugee camps live below the deep
poverty line.” 31. Food is hard to provide for many families over 1.5 million people are for
insecure. the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) developed many programs trying to
provide humanitarian assistance.

Corruption
According to Transparency international, 17% of public service users paid a bribe in the previous
12 months.” According to World Bank data, the use of favoritism/nepotism is considered to be
the most frequent form of corruption in the public sector by the large majority of respondents
(77%). Other forms of corruption perceived to occur in the public sector include conflict of
interest (65%), unauthorized personal use of PNA resources (59.6%), and large-scale corruption
(e.g., stealing money and public property, 56.4%). Bribery is reportedly the form of corruption
perceived to occur the least frequently in the public sector.” 32

Competitiveness

29
Child Poverty and Youth Unemployment in Palestine, Wahiba Abu-Ras, Rozena A. Mohamed
30
https://borgenproject.org/increased-poverty-in-palestine/
31
https://borgenproject.org/tag/poverty-in-palestine/
32
Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Palestine, transparency international
The Gaza restrictions makes it harder for Palestinian’s products to be competitive enough or to be
produced in a good quality, it is a hard to maintain to expand and maintain Competitiveness. The
Palestinian product face the Israeli products that can easily dominate the Palestinian markets and
crash the local products “Palestine mainly exports cement, base metals, iron and steel, food and
beverages, furniture, plastics and dairy products.” 33

Economy growth

The Palestinian economy relay mainly on international aid, especially in Gaza where all good are
banned from entering the territory. “From the onset of the imposition of the closure and severe
economic and movement restrictions from 2007 to 2018, the economic growth of Gaza fluctuated
sharply and grew on average by just 0.8 per cent annually, while the West Bank ‒ also under
occupation and facing restrictions, measures and control ‒ grew by 6.6 per cent annually.”

34

Currently Palestine with the pandemic the economy growth reached 5.4 in the first half of 2021
and is expected to reach 6 by the end of 2021. 35

33
https://tradingeconomics.com/palestine/exports
34
Economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people: the Gaza Strip under closure and restrictions,
United nations, general assembly, Seventy-fifth session
36

Natural resources:

The Palestine territory is rich with gas and Oil, the British gas group estimated the existence over
thirty billion cubic meters of gas in the Gaza Marine and Border Field. But Israel took the control
of this Gaz and quickly Israel moved from importing the Gaz to exporting it to Jordan. This
Palestinian living in Gaza does not benefit from it, the electricity company GPGC runs on liquid

35
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/11/09/palestinian-economy-experiences-growth-but-
prospects-remain-uncertain
36
https://tradingeconomics.com/palestine/gdp-growth-annual
fuel that is purchased

37

Another resource natural is the marine reserves range off the coast of the Gaza strip that stretches
at 20 nautical miles, but this resource once again is exploited by Israeli’s, Palestinians have only
the right to fish in three nautical miles, if they ever dare to challenge the restrictions imposed,
they get shot. 38

37
https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/israel-uses-gas-enforce-palestinian-dependency-promote-normalization/
38
https://middle-east-online.com/en/natural-resources-palestine-robbed-israel
 Bibliohraphie

1- The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and
Resistance, UK Edition
2- A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, Ian Pappe
3- The War for Palestine Rewriting the History of 1948
4- One State, Two States Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict
5- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe
6- Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo, Seth Anziska
7- The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming
Memory, Nur Masalh
8- Political Parties in Palestine: Leadership and Thought, Michael Bröning
9- https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Palestine_2005.pdf?lang=en
10- https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2021-posts/1-7-21the-dissolution-of-the-palestinian-legislative-
council
11- https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/justice_system/
12- https://security-
legislation.ps/sites/default/files/law/Judicial%20Authority%20Law%20No.%201%20of%
202002.pdf
13- https://www.cairn.info/revue-confluences-mediterranee-2013-3-page-115.htm
14- Child development data from the 2019/2020 multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS)
15- https://middle-east-online.com/en/natural-resources-palestine-robbed-israel
16- https://fanack.com/palestine/population-of-palestine/
17- https://tradingeconomics.com/palestine/exports
18- https://ps.boell.org/en/2021/08/19/agriculture-palestine
19- https://borgenproject.org/increased-poverty-in-palestine/