Palestinian rejection of the American peace plan known as the "Deal of the Century" is not limited to the political aspect of it, but rather they see in the economic part of the deal a recipe for their economic destruction.
Palestinian officials and economists consider that what was included in the plan put forward by US President Donald Trump about a month ago to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, aims in essence to perpetuate the dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel and not ensure its prosperity.
A research paper presented by the Palestinian Institute for Research and Economic Policy (MAS) during a press conference held in Ramallah yesterday, Tuesday, considered that the American plan represents a "recipe for destroying the Palestinian economy through the division and fragmentation of Palestinian geography."
The research paper titled "The American-Israeli Vision to End the Palestinian Issue, the Economic Dimensions and the Possible Effects of Implementation", reviewed the risks of the US plan regarding besieging the Palestinians in ghettos, and not providing any space for urban or agricultural expansion.
The research paper confirmed that the American plan establishes absolute Israeli control over the movement of goods and people, the annexation of Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, settlements, theft of Palestinian groundwater, as well as control of the Palestinian airspace and Palestinian cyber domain and control of the communications sector.
The director of the MAS Institute for Economic Policy Research Raja Khalidi says that the essence of the American plan is: "It is based on destroying the Palestinian economy and damages all aspects of the local product because it is not possible to manage an economy under the reality of the occupation."
In statements to Xinhua, Al-Khaldi considered that the deal of the century leads, in practice, to more fragility and dependence on the Israeli economy by perpetuating the restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinian economy.
He adds that "the inevitable outcome of implementing this plan is to destroy the Palestinian economy and stifle the space available for work and investment, not to achieve prosperity."
The research paper refuted the goals that the American plan said the economic side would achieve, including doubling the gross domestic product, reducing unemployment to a level close to 10%, reducing poverty by 50%, and creating a million jobs over 10 years.
The authors of the study say that the plan’s talk about doubling the gross domestic product in ten years is an empty talk, as data indicate during the last three decades that the Palestinian economy doubles every ten years under the current situation, and the plan did not bring new talk about doubling it during the next ten years, and with Therefore, unemployment and poverty are on the rise.
The authors of the paper stated that "the objectives of an economic nature presented by the American plan aim to devote Israel as a regional economic center that dominates the economies of the surrounding Arab countries."
They also consider that the investment side of the plan does not represent a general and specific framework for Palestinian-Israeli economic relations along the lines of the Paris Protocol, and is nothing more than a US-Israeli investment plan.
During the local conference to present the research paper, former Economy Minister Maher Al-Masry said that the century deal "is trying to delude us to a country that does not exist and will never be present."
Al-Masry added that the American plan "did not only perpetuate the existing restrictions imposed by the occupation on the Palestinian economy, but rather added new restrictions to what exists, and it is for the benefit of the Israeli economy, not the Palestinian, as the Palestinians have turned into contractors of the occupation."
Palestinian economists describe the "carrot" of the economic prosperity that the Deal of the Century suggests is unrealistic, and that it is not possible to reduce the poverty rate among Palestinians as long as the per capita Palestinian GDP will grow less than it is now.
Palestinian businessman Samir Hleileh says that the American plan included the deployment of about 105 additional military checkpoints in the Palestinian territories, in order to prevent any geographic contiguity of the Palestinian economy.
He considered Halila in statements to Xinhua that the American plan "can only create one thing, which is to perpetuate the pledge of the Palestinian people for humanitarian aid forever and not to enable it to build a free and capable economy."
He added that it is expected that the ceiling of implementation of the deal of the century by Israel will be limited to the annexation of the Jordan Valley and settlements, "while the talk about development, port and safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza remains nothing but empty talk and nothing will be implemented from it."
And he stresses that any real prosperity of the Palestinian economy will remain linked to the expansion and development of Palestinian natural resources, and the expansion of production capacity by increasing the scope for domestic and foreign markets for Palestinian products in addition to practical programs to develop the Palestinian work force professionally and technically.
It is noteworthy that the economic aspect of the American peace plan included the call to establish a $ 50 billion investment fund to support the Palestinian economy and the economies of the Arab neighboring countries.
Israel says it intends to annex large parts of the West Bank, especially in Area C and the Jordan Valley, which makes up 30% of the West Bank, and is an important region for its economic opportunities in agriculture, tourism and energy.
The Palestinians complain that their economy incurs annual losses of about $ 3.5 billion annually due to Israel´s control of the Jordan Valley and the prevention of any Palestinian projects in it.
