The Economic Costs of the Israeli Occupation for the Palestinian People

Abstract

The study focuses on the economic cost of the Israeli occupation of Area C, which accounts for about 60 per cent of the total area of the occupied West Bank. While the occupation also imposes significant restrictions on Palestinian economic activity in Areas A and B, it imposes more restrictions in Area C. This report estimates the cost of these additional restrictions on economic activities in Area C, outside the settlements. The economic cost is estimated by applying an innovative, well-established methodology that uses nighttime luminosity (NTL), captured by satellite sensors over a span of time, to estimate levels of economic activity. Occupation fragments the geography and economy of the West Bank, disfiguring Areas A and B and C and rendering them like a jigsaw the pieces of which no longer fit together. These areas, broken down by a complex multi-layered control system, are deprived of much more than their unity. How can the losses entailed by restrictions and territorial fragmentation be assessed? And what is the economic cost of depriving Palestinian producers of Area C, the only contiguous part of the West Bank? This study aims to answer both questions by estimating part of this cost.