Bringing Gaza Back From the Brink
22 Jan 2010 in Education, Employment, Civic Participation
US Special Envoy George Mitchell is in the Middle East to attempt to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process. Edward Sayre and Samantha Constant argue that, during his visit, Mitchell must attend to the dire economic and humantiarian situation in Gaza. Gaza’s well-educated youth are eager to work and establish a future like their counterparts in the West Bank, yet they continue to be sealed off from the global economy.
George Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Special Envoy for the Middle East, is in the region this week to restart stalled peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government. While talks are likely to focus on the West Bank where the interests are most aligned, the reality is that any meaningful peace negotiation must address the fate of Gaza and the future of its one million plus young people.
There are two underlying reasons why the Gaza Strip – a small patch of land with 1.5 million residents, limited natural resources, and no access to international markets – should be placed high on the US agenda. First and foremost, humanitarian conditions are worsening after having been dramatically exacerbated by last year’s conflict. Second, the Israeli-imposed blockade of Gaza has proven ineffective in undermining Hamas support and has only led to the eventual collapse of the Gaza economy.
According to the United Nations, Gaza suffered $1.9 billion in economic damage and over 1,300 Palestinians were killed during the clashes last winter. Gaza’s young people have suffered the worst from this conflict. Approximately 75 percent of the Gazan population is under the age of 30, and these youth currently face a bleak future.
Recent statistics show that the unemployment rate for Gaza’s youth (15 to 29 years old) reached 56 percent in 2009. Young people who have recently left school are the most desperate for work. In fact, the unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds is 62 percent and for younger workers aged 15 to 19 it rises to 73 percent.
These figures stand in sharp contrast to Palestinians living in the West Bank. The unemployment rate for young Palestinians in the West Bank is 27 percent: still high, but less than half the levels seen in Gaza.
High fertility rates have fed into these challenges in the labor market. Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, the birth rate in Gaza stood above 8 births per woman while rates decreased everywhere else in the Arab World, including the West Bank. Today, despite a decline in fertility rates, population projections show that the number of young people in Gaza will continue to expand for 25 more years. As a result, each year there will be a record number of children to educate in schools and a record number of young people entering the work force.
The other driving force behind the employment challenge is the grim economic conditions caused by the blockade. The blockade was imposed by Israel in 2007 with the intention of punishing Hamas and its supporters. However, the strategy behind the blockade did not work. Instead, Hamas has emerged mostly unscathed, leaving only a disillusioned and angry population struggling to attain the most basic of human needs with limited, if any, prospect for gainful employment and life security.
At present, Gaza has reverted back to a subsistence economy. Its border with Egypt has been blocked by the Egyptian military and the crossing points at Karni and Erez into Israel have been sealed to goods and workers, except for limited inflows of fuel and humanitarian aid. For the first few months, crops would rot on the backs of trucks as exporters desperately hoped for the border to open. Today, Gazans are lucky if one truckload of flowers or strawberries is allowed to exit the territory for exporting abroad. The population depends upon an underground economy where necessities are trucked in by relief agencies and everything else is channeled through illegal tunnels underneath the border with Egypt. Even those meager attempts to create a viable economy may be under siege as there are efforts to create new, more impenetrable barriers between Gaza and Egypt.
Despite its dismal outlook, the Gaza economy has the potential of a twofold opportunity: the first is in its large share of young people whose productive capacity, if tapped, can be a gift rather than a challenge. Second, relatively high wages had previously made the manufacturing sector in Gaza uncompetitive. But today, with wages falling precipitously in the past few years (15 percent in the last three years alone), Gaza can now be competitive in export-oriented industries. Gaza’s young people are well educated, eager to work, and care mostly about establishing a future for themselves. If investors are allowed access to rebuild Gaza’s manufacturing base and if those manufacturers are allowed unfettered access to markets in the West Bank and the rest of the world, Gaza could experience a once in a lifetime opportunity to rapidly grow its economy.
Political progress between Israelis and Palestinians will depend on the ability of the United States to address the needs for economic development in Gaza as well as West Bank. The technology and the security protocols already exist to ensure that opening of Gaza’s borders to the rest of the world will not pose a security threat to Israel. Easing mobility restrictions and lifting the blockade will allow Palestinian producers to obtain necessary raw materials, consumers to buy goods from the outside world, and Gaza’s youth to find jobs in the West Bank. If the United States can find a way to ensure that such economic prospects are met, this will enhance the likelihood of eventual peace and bring back hope to Gazan youth and their families.
