NablusTwo months passed when Palestinian citizen Diaa Al-Kharraz was able to open his factory in the town of Hawara near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank and restart it. Whenever he tried to do so or went to inspect it, the occupation soldiers attacked him, who turned the village into a military barracks and assaulted him.
To harass citizens and under the pretext of commando operations on Huwwara Street, the Israeli occupation army closed the Kharaz factory designated for the manufacture of tahini and dozens of commercial shops there in early last October, and escalated its military emphasis on them after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation launched by the Palestinian resistance led by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – The military wing of the Hamas movement – on occupation army bases in the Gaza Strip on October 7th.
The occupation disrupted about 300 different economic and commercial facilities in the town of Huwwara alone, with its arbitrary measures that affected 25% of the industrial and commercial facilities, completely or partially, in the occupied West Bank, with a complete halt to production in the Gaza Strip. As a result of the Israeli aggression, according to a report by the “Economic Observatory” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Palestinian economy.
Layoffs
By stopping work, the 6 workers of the Al-Kharaz factory were unemployed, and they support about 30 individuals. Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Dhia Al-Kharaz estimated his loss during this recent period at about 8 thousand dollars, in addition to the significant damage he suffered since the beginning of the year.
He says that closing roads due to checkpoints has doubled distances and made movement more difficult, and loading and marketing goods has become very expensive and time-consuming.
Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Economy indicate that the occupation’s conversion of the town of Hawara into a military barracks as part of a policy of collective abuse and economic siege has limited the movement of citizens there to 2%, and that purchasing activity is limited to only 10% of the town’s residents, in addition to the damage to meat and food supplies merchants and the destruction of about 80 % of their goods.
The poor economic situation was not limited to merchants. Building contractors such as Adnan Abu Hamed suffered from this, which forced him to suspend some workers and transfer others through the shift system.
Abu Hamed told Al Jazeera Net that they were affected by delayed and irregular salaries, and the “Israeli workers” stopped, and this generated fear among citizens and investors in the construction sector, some of whom stopped their projects and others froze work on them.
The situation of the importing merchant, Shadi Al-Baba, is no better. The war delayed his imports of clothing accessories and gifts after Israel detained them for about a month. To make matters worse, he was fined huge sums of money, such as the ground fee at the Israeli port.
The Pope told Al Jazeera Net that his trade originally declined during the winter by 70%, but it has now reached 10% due to the decrease in purchasing activity with the reduction and irregularity of salaries. He estimated his loss between 20 and 30 thousand US dollars since the start of the war on Gaza.
A frightening decline in facilities
The “Economic Observatory” report issued by the Ministry of Economy late last November showed that 85% of economic establishments’ performance declined as a result of the occupation’s continued incursions into Palestinian villages and cities, and that 8% were subjected to its direct attacks.
The average number of workers in 41% of economic establishments in the West Bank also decreased by 54% of the total number of workers as a result of the economic deterioration in various sectors, due to the repercussions of the ongoing Israeli aggression with the almost complete cessation of production in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian Observatory report, the monthly revenues of the service establishments sector (restaurants and tourism) also declined by an average of 75%, and the production capacity of industrial establishments declined by 91%, with an average of 43%.
90% of the establishments recorded a decline in their monthly sales, especially since 78% of them suffered difficulty in moving and distributing goods, due to hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints spread across the West Bank.
Recession deepens
For his part, the media official at the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, Saeed Omran, believes that the economic recession has actually increased, attributing this to many reasons, the most important of which are; Israel has prevented Palestinian workers from entering since the beginning of the war.
This led to a decline in economic activity and a decline in purchasing power, especially since a large portion of these workers have obligations in the form of huge checks and financial loans that are difficult for them to commit to repaying.
Omran estimated the loss resulting from the cessation of 190,000 working in Israel at one billion and 250 million shekels ($333.33) per month, which was directly reflected in their purchasing power and moving the wheel of the economy.
140,000 public sector employees also suffered from having their salaries reduced to 50%, which came in the form of bank advances in light of Israel’s piracy of clearing funds, which is what Israel reaps from taxes on goods imported to the Palestinians by virtue of its control over land and sea ports and in accordance with an agreement with the authority in exchange for a commission. 3%, estimated at approximately $188 million per month.
According to Omran, the monthly salaries and wages bill for employees exceeds one billion shekels ($267 million), and failure to pay them will result in loss of cash liquidity in the market.
The effects and risks of this economic recession were reflected in many employers abandoning their employees, and the inability of others to move and reach their workplaces easily and safely, in addition to Israel imposing a comprehensive siege on the West Bank and preventing 1948 Palestinians from entering the West Bank and shopping there.
War on the economy
What is happening is an “Israeli war” on the Palestinian economy, not a recession, as described by Bashar Al-Saifi, director of the Ministry of Economy’s office in Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank.
Al-Saifi told Al-Jazeera Net that preventing clearance funds, closing the crossings, and preventing workers cast a large shadow on the flow of money into the market and thus weakened purchasing power, and that the repercussions of this are serious and everyone will feel its “catastrophic effects,” as he described it.
Al-Saifi confirms that the risks have already begun to appear, and that a large number of economic establishments are no longer able to pay operating expenses, and thus a large portion of the workers in them have begun to lose their jobs.
Internally, Al-Saifi says that efforts are being made to mitigate the effects of the economic blockade, especially coordination between the government and the banking sector to disburse half the salary to employees, and other coordination between the chambers of commerce and the Ministry of Economy to overcome the crisis and search for possible and quick solutions.
But the most important thing is to provide direct Arab and international support for the Palestinian economy on the one hand, and other support through pressure on the occupation to curb its arbitrary practices on the other hand, warning that the repercussions of the “catastrophic economic” situation will be very dangerous on the living, social, economic and political reality as well, according to Al-Saifi.
