Bush and Olmert Choking Gaza & Palestinian Economy

GAZA CITY (NRC) May 23 — The Palestinian Economic Development Company has fired 6,000 Palestinian workers and will shut down the fruit and vegetables hothouses in the former Jewish settlement areas of the Gaza Strip. A part of the workers were already placed on non-active status due to lack of income to pay the salaries.

Due to the closure of the main border-crossing at Karni by the Israeli military command IDF, it became impossible to export the goods as the losses increased to three million dollars. According to manager Bassil Jabir, the first year ended in a great disappointment. Instead of exporting the strawberries, tomatoes and peppers to the European markt for $16m revenues, the total harvest was wasted or given away at low prices to the poor.

Palestinian farmers cannot get their fruit and vegetables to market

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (Boston Globe) Oct. 31, 2005 — The refurbished greenhouses shine amid the rubble of Kfar Darom, a former Jewish settlement, embodying the hope that Israel`s withdrawal from Gaza will drive an economic revival of this desperately poor and crowded urban strip.

Hundreds of Palestinian workers have been hired to fix up the 3,200 greenhouses in Gaza that donors bought from departing settlers and gave to the Palestinian Authority.

So far, the effort has yielded mixed results: Palestinian firms have risen to the occasion, repairing greenhouses sabotaged by departing settlers and by Palestinian looters. Some already have been planted with crops of mint, tomatoes, and lettuce and are expected to yield harvests in November.

The greenhouses offered a rare example of cooperation among Israelis and Palestinians during the pullout in August. James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president who is serving as a Middle East envoy, hammered out the deal to buy the greenhouses. He even gave half a million dollars of his own money to the donor group that spent $14 million for them.

Israel shuts off water, dries Gaza greenhouses

But Israel still controls Gaza’s borders, and it has yet to approve an agreement that would open up a reliable channel to ship goods out of the strip, despite continuing negotiations mediated by Wolfensohn’s team. Two weeks ago, Wolfensohn criticized Israel in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying it was ”almost acting as though there has been no withdrawal” with its policy of continuing to seal off Gaza and delaying talks. Wolfensohn is a special envoy for the quartet of Middle East mediators — the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia.

Gates Charitable Foundation Behind Gaza Greenhouse Handover to PA
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Gaza had 12,000 greenhouses in the Palestinian areas, Abu Samra said, with agriculture accounting for 6 percent to 13 percent of the economy, by ministry estimates. He said the greenhouse project, if successful, could inject an additional $30 million of revenue into the local economy, a lower estimate than the $50 million to $100 million touted by some international consultants.

In the final reckoning, those involved said, the success of the greenhouse project – like the viability of Gaza`s entire economy — will depend on the broader context: security and the ability to trade.

● May 2006 – James Wolfensohn has formally stepped down as economic coordinator for Gaza