Media coverage
Palestine Today · 2018-02-21
A report gathering specialists' views on ways out of Gaza's economic crisis. Shaban sees a solution on two levels: officially, accelerating reconciliation so the government takes up both its rights and its responsibilities in Gaza; and practically, not holding humanitarian and economic conditions hostage to political files, calling for workshops and interim ideas to support residents with NGOs, the private sector and donors.
A report gathering specialists' views on ways out of Gaza's economic crisis. Shaban sees a solution on two levels: officially, accelerating reconciliation so the government takes up both its rights and its responsibilities in Gaza; and practically, not holding humanitarian and economic conditions h…
### They called for handing over “Gaza revenues” to the government and lifting the sanctions
### They called for handing over “Gaza revenues” to the government and lifting the sanctions
Specialists put forward ideas and visions for getting out of the economic crisis in Gaza
Prominent economic specialists called for sparing citizens in the Gaza Strip from political disputes, and for not linking the condition of “empowering the government” to lifting the economic sanctions that have affected all aspects of life and worsened the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
During a discussion panel titled “Ways Out of the Economic Crisis in the Gaza Strip,” organized by the Palestine Institute for Strategic Studies, the economists stressed the need for Hamas to hand over the revenues in Gaza to the government, and to remove every pretext before the latter.
The specialists agreed that the Gaza Strip is “living through an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to local and international indicators and figures, while at the same time warning of serious social repercussions of the deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation, or of Gaza heading toward an explosion whose direction and effects are unknown and may extend to the region, which requires thinking of new ways out of the economic crisis.
Omar Shaban: the solution lies in accelerating reconciliation and not mortgaging humanitarian conditions to political files
Omar Shaban, director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, believes that the solution to the crisis ravaging the Gaza Strip lies on two levels; the first level, on the official plane, lies “in accelerating reconciliation, and for the government to assume its full rights in the Gaza Strip, while committing to its responsibilities toward Gaza according to the law and the reconciliation agreements.”
As for the second level to confront the crisis—from Shaban’s point of view—it lies in the necessity of not mortgaging the difficult humanitarian and economic conditions to political files and the empowerment of the government, because “2 million people must be provided with services, and everyone must work to improve the reality of their lives. We must think carefully and pose a major question: what ideas should we work with temporarily until comprehensive reconciliation is completed? This requires workshops and major forums to reach a comprehensive vision for dealing with the current crisis.”
Shaban mentioned that there are many ideas and visions that can be pursued under the ceiling of the political decision and the current difficult reality, saying, “There are dozens of ideas and projects that can be considered. We must implement them until full reconciliation is achieved in order to keep the economy and people’s lives moving.”
Shaban called for strengthening the steadfastness of the Palestinian citizen in Gaza through all available and accessible means, and for making use of NGOs, the private sector, donors, and companies.
He also called for the private sector and various institutions to present ideas to European countries in order to benefit from the various forms of support in development and rescuing the situation.
He stressed the need to work seriously to end the United Nations mechanism for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which turned the “United Nations” into a company for contracting and guarding, and replaced the Israeli blockade with a UN blockade.
He pointed out that the mechanism is one of the causes of suffering and the major economic stagnation in the Gaza Strip, noting that “what is required is to stop working with it entirely, not merely review it.”
He concluded by saying, “We are all exposed to ruin if we do not move to save the situation and present ideas to improve the current reality. We must sound the alarm and work together before it is too late.”
Osama Nofal calls for handing over “local revenues” to the government to remove the pretexts for disavowing Gaza
For his part, the economic affairs specialist Dr. Osama Nofal believes “that the economic crisis cannot be solved or understood in isolation from the existing political situation.”
In the first of his proposals, Nofal called for holding the political leadership in Ramallah and Gaza accountable for the conditions the Strip has reached, considering that “the economic situation worsened after the reconciliation agreement, which negatively affected Gazans’ view of reconciliation, as it raised poverty and unemployment rates.”
Nofal believes that the “consensus government” does not wish to exercise its full duties in Gaza, for fear of increased financial burdens on the sector, and that it wants to keep the situation as it is.
Nofal called on the ministries in Gaza to hand over all “local revenues” before the factions, the media, and the Palestinian public, in order to remove the pretext before the consensus government, which disavows its responsibilities in Gaza because it has not received the revenues.
Nofal explained that what is required from the executive authorities in Gaza is to deal gently and in the spirit of the law with financial liabilities, bounced checks, and rights, while also easing people’s burden by reducing fees in the ministries and departments.
He called for Arab and Islamic financing for Palestinian reconciliation, saying, “Unfortunately, we found dozens of countries financing the division, and we did not find anyone financing reconciliation.”
Amin Abu Aisheh: it is necessary to confront the crises of the Palestinian economy by changing political orientations and supporting citizens’ steadfastness
For his part, the academic and financial expert Amin Abu Aisheh affirmed that it is necessary to confront the crises of the Palestinian economy by changing political orientations and implementing reforms in the economic system.
Abu Aisheh stressed the need to search for new alliances to improve economic conditions and develop its sectors.
Abu Aisheh called for attention to the agricultural sector in Gaza, within a restorative reform plan.
He also called for raising levels of financial discipline and controlling the public budget, along with the need to break the state of political division and complete reconciliation.
He stressed that it is necessary to provide the factors of steadfastness for citizens in Gaza, because depriving the citizen of the factors of steadfastness means making way for external plans, pointing out that the intended elements of steadfastness are providing food and clothing and not tightening the noose on the citizen.
He called on Hamas to hand over internal revenues in order to remove the pretexts of the consensus government.
He pointed out that it is necessary to change the orientations in dealing with NGOs, and that projects must be directed in a way that serves development, noting that some donor parties have ignoble objectives.
He called for rejecting the “external agenda” and providing interest-free loans to citizens to stimulate the economy, citing the success of the Malaysian experience in development.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan: the Palestinian economy needs a series of policies to address the existing distortions
For his part, the head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, Mohsen Abu Ramadan, said, “Two factors have left major negative effects and distortions in the Palestinian economy, particularly in the Gaza Strip: the dependency of the Palestinian economy on Israel through the 1994 Paris Protocol, and the second factor that affected Gaza’s economy is the ongoing Israeli blockade for the past 11 years.”
He pointed out that the Palestinian economy needs a series of policies to address the existing distortions, beginning with the unity of the Palestinian political system and its reform in all aspects, along with strengthening the principles of justice and social protection.
He called for completing reconciliation not from the principle of “empowerment,” which means one party’s control over another party, but rather on the basis of full partnership through which all political and economic distortions can be reformed, explaining that reforming the comprehensive political and economic system requires strategies, in-depth thinking about mechanisms, and enriching the proposals.
To get out of the situation of the flaccid economy in Gaza, he believes it is important to formulate an independent body composed of technicians, economists, administrators, and academics, whose task would be to present visions and follow up on mechanisms in all sectors, and whose second task would be to formulate proposals to preserve society in the event that reconciliation fails.
He called for abolishing the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), currently in force under international supervision, which has deepened the crises of the Gaza Strip, expressing surprise at the approval of the Authority, the factions, and local bodies of the mechanism in 2014, and calling for resisting it and bringing it down.
He called for the need to assist affected companies and businessmen, and to make use of the profits earned by major companies within the framework of "social responsibility," with the need to employ those funds in development.
## Samir Abu Mdallala: The way out of the economic crises cannot be isolated from the political solution
For his part, the specialist in economic affairs, Dr. Samir Abu Mdallala, said, "The way out of the economic crises in Gaza can only be through political solutions represented in completing reconciliation and getting out of the cycle of empowerment and the like."
Abu Mdallala called on both sides not to link the empowerment of the government to the lifting of sanctions on the Gaza Strip, and stressed the need to separate the political files from the humanitarian, service, and economic conditions.
Abu Mdallala criticized the reconstruction mechanism, which he described as bad, as well as the donor countries' reneging on their financial commitments related to reconstruction.
He mentioned the importance of providing loans and grants to citizens in Gaza, reviving the Gaza Strip, and serious diplomatic work to lift the blockade on Gaza.
He called for not relying on the relief aspect, while stressing the need to strengthen the developmental aspect.
## Abdel Fattah al-Zuraii: Completing reconciliation, unifying the political leadership between the West Bank and Gaza, activating lending and grant funds, and supporting the private sector would ease the severity of the economic conditions
For his part, the Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy in Gaza, Abdel Fattah al-Zuraii, said, "It is necessary to confront the current crisis in the Gaza Strip by redrawing economic policies with the Israeli occupation."
He believes that completing reconciliation, unifying the political leadership between the West Bank and Gaza, activating lending and grant funds, and supporting the private sector would ease the severity of the economic conditions.
He called on banks to provide soft loans to alleviate the suffering of the private sector, which is considered "the largest employer."
He pointed to the importance of exploiting empty spaces in the Gaza Strip to stimulate the agricultural sector, while stressing the need to pay attention to the industrial sector, such as the "leather industry," and to rely on introducing prohibited materials into Gaza through the Israeli crossings via the Egyptian side.
He called on relief institutions to alleviate the severity of poverty and misery in the Gaza Strip, and to bring the necessary funding to revive Gazan families, calling on the Palestinian factions to participate effectively in easing the economic burdens suffered by Gaza.
## Mahmoud Sabra: Activating the role of social forces, municipalities, and institutions in pressuring political forces to neutralize the humanitarian situation from the political files
In this context, economics professor Mahmoud Sabra called for neutralizing the humanitarian conditions and services in the Gaza Strip from the political files.
He stressed the importance of activating the role of social forces, municipalities, and NGOs in pressuring the political forces to neutralize the humanitarian conditions from the complicated political files.
He called on the government to significantly enhance the Gaza Strip's benefit from the general budget for several reasons, most notably its exposure to massive destruction from the three wars and the ongoing blockade since 2011.
Sabra affirmed that the opening of Gaza's economy to Egypt could turn into a political disaster if the opening is not within a clear legal and institutional framework, noting that openness to Egypt needs a legal framework away from randomness so that it does not produce counterproductive results.
He said: openness to Egypt must be within a clear agreement and on a competitive basis open to all, away from any consideration and within a legal and institutional framework.
He called for forming a database and setting developmental and national priorities for external aid within a strategic plan in order to direct international projects and NGO projects, to focus on the developmental aspect more than the relief aspect, and to direct external aid to serve the national and pan-national strategy.
He called for thinking about partnerships with countries of the world to open new markets, for example, "establishing economic partnerships between Gazan businessmen and others from other countries such as Turkey and Malaysia, which would open broad horizons for Gaza's economy."
## Moin Rajab: The first steps of economic recovery lie in the accurate diagnosis of the crises
For his part, the economic expert Moeen Rajab affirmed that "the first steps of economic recovery lie in the accurate diagnosis of the crises from which Gaza suffers in a transparent and professional manner."
He called for distancing political bickering from the economic, humanitarian, and living reality of citizens in the Gaza Strip, and for serious efforts to solve the political crises, because the economy is the mirror of politics, explaining that "completing Palestinian reconciliation would improve conditions in Gaza and remove the pretexts before the consensus government."
Rajab called for working with what is available, thinking outside the box, and not leaving the Gaza Strip to drown in crises, demanding the activation of a broad movement to confront the economic crises, saying, "Our human resources are capable of creating momentum, and we must sound the alarm and put in place plans and programs to save Gaza."
## Iyad al-Shourbaji calls for forming a national financial fund that includes all segments and categories to get out of the crisis
In this context, the head of the Gaza Center for Strategic Studies, Iyad al-Shourbaji, called for "forming a national financial fund that includes all segments and categories such as companies, academics, experts, and businessmen," to develop the necessary policies to get out of the impasse and contribute to saving the Gaza Strip.
Text © Palestine Today — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source