HebronThe Israeli occupation holds all the strings of the Palestinian economy, and by its control over the ports it controls the commercial movement to and from Palestine, at a time when the noose is tightening on the Palestinian Authority, in conjunction with its control of the land.
In addition to destroying the Gaza Strip, including its industrial facilities, the occupation moved to the banking sector and decided to strangle it by announcing the confiscation of Palestinian funds held for years on which the Palestinian Authority relied to pay the salaries of its employees.
Decrease in imports
Since Palestinian imports of goods from abroad are through Israeli ports, and through Israel as an address, Palestinian imports were affected in light of the war.
According to a report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian exports, most of which to Israel, decreased by about 17%, while merchandise imports – most of which are from abroad – decreased by 29% during March 2024 compared to the same month last year.
With Turkey announcing on May 2 a complete cessation of trade transactions with Israel until humanitarian aid is allowed to enter the Gaza Strip without restrictions, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that Israel “will cancel the free trade agreement with Turkey, and will also impose fees of 100%.” 100% on other imports from Turkey,” which means raising taxes on goods that will reach Palestinian merchants.
The Turkish move was officially welcomed by Palestinians, but the question arises: how Palestine will be affected by the Israeli response to the Turkish action, especially since the destination of Palestinian goods must pass through Israel.
The head of the Palestinian Food Merchants Syndicate, Wassim Al-Jaabari, says that West Bank imports were affected as a result of the war on Gaza. “The occupation’s control over the crossings and ports forces merchants to make Israel the destination for Palestinian goods.”
He pointed to an increase in prices resulting from ships changing their routes from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope.
Regarding Turkey’s decision to stop exporting to Israel, he said that the decision does not include goods whose final destination is Palestine and whose owners are Palestinian importers, adding: “So far things are going normally, and a small number of Turkish companies have stopped exporting to Palestine without knowing the reason.”
Al-Jaabari pointed out that the taxes on Turkish imports are as they are, and the Israeli announcement of a 100% increase was not implemented, noting that most of Palestine’s food imports from Turkey are oil, flour, and legumes.
Billion dollar
According to a previous statement by the Palestinian Minister of Economy, Muhammad Al-Amour, imports from Turkey to Palestine increased in 2022 by 48% compared to 2020, and by 15% on an annual average.
While the volume of Palestinian imports from Turkey is estimated at about one billion dollars, according to what Mahmoud Abu Shanab, media official at the Ministry of Economy, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, almost all of them enter through Israeli ports, and Israel collects its taxes and transfers them to the Palestinian Authority in a process called “clearing.”
But Israel deducts tens of millions of dollars from the clearance monthly under various pretexts, and last Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) approved a draft law to seize the withheld amounts of money.
These amounts are estimated at about 3 billion shekels (about 890 million dollars), which the occupation says is equivalent to what the authority pays to the families of martyrs and prisoners.
These developments come at a time when Smotrich announced his intention not to extend monetary cooperation relations between Palestinian banks and their Israeli counterparts, which would harm financial transactions, especially since Israeli banks constitute a financial link for Palestinian banks with the world, especially in commercial and non-commercial transactions estimated at approximately Billion dollar.
Will power collapse?
In the opinion of Dr. Nael Musa, lecturer in the Department of Economics at An-Najah National University in Nablus, the Palestinian Authority was initially established “as an agent for the Israelis in the Palestinian territories,” explaining that it positioned itself “in accordance with the Paris Economic and Oslo Political Agreements (1994) under the supervision and restrictions of Israel, which controls the crossings.”
He said – in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the Paris Agreement “put us in a customs enclosure with Israel, and therefore our relationship with the outside world is linked to Israel’s relationship with the outside world. It also made Israel an agent in collecting taxes and customs in exchange for 3%.”
The economic expert believes that the economic restrictions being imposed on the Authority are not far removed from the mentality of Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich and the idea of deportation and economic reoccupation, noting that “not transferring the clearance stifles the Authority and makes it unable to carry out its work, which inevitably leads to its collapse.”
Moussa adds, “All things lead to the collapse of the authority through suffocation and displacement, and making the West Bank an unviable area for the Palestinians, whether through siege or daily aggression, which loses its ability to manage the affairs of the Palestinians.”
At a time when Smotrich does not care about the requests of the United States, the professor of economics believes that the United States will turn to a number of Arab countries to support the Palestinian Authority, “and indeed we have begun to hear Arab voices rejecting the collapse of the Authority, and talking about the necessity of preserving and supporting it.”