as the us is really genocidal war completes his fifth month, economic indicators on the west bank show dismal performance, strangled by palestinian worker restrictions and the israeli regime holding to palestinian author. tax revenues or the future looks dem, especially since the violence continues in the occupied west bank. hi, i'm, welcome to economic divide. coming up in this program, we will take a look at the warning that was issued by the world bank when it came to the west bank economy. now one of them is cross border wages of 5.5 billion that's been affected by what's going on in the west bank, that is obviously a big worry for the palestinian economy. next, one of the factors that... has contributed to this, is the

of palestinian authorities tax money being withheld, israel collects that money, uh, the funds withheld uh is something that affects the economy of palestine, and uh, this is money that pays 143, workers to go spend it, but if they don't have it, how can they do that? next, the israeli west bank aggression, over 400 palestinians have been killed, violence continues almost a daily basis and these two factors obviously impacts, the economy not only of israel, but also of the occupied west bank. israel's genocidal war on the palestinians in the gaza strip and the regime's daily atrocities in the occupied west bank has devastated palestine's economy, apart from the catastrophic human loss. the onslot has

resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of housing units with over 1.2 million individuals currently without homes. report by the world bank says gross domestic product of the gaza strip plummeted by 80% in the fourth quarter of 2023, while the gdp of the west bank also fell by 22%. for the gaza strip, the combination of pre-existing high levels of poverty, widespread internal displacement, the destruction of homes, fixed assets and productive capacity coupled with a massive economic downturn, real... means that nearly every resident will live in poverty, at least in the short term. north gaza infrastructure is heavily impacted with over 62% of all roads damaged or destroyed, primary roads bear the brunts with 92% affected, almost 60% of which are destroyed. secondary roads also face severe damage with just over 60%. unusable on the energy front,

almost 62% of the strip's electricity feeder lines are damaged or destroyed. during the early stages of the onslot, israel turned off the supply of electricity to gaza. time now for our online media post. first up taking a look at what was posted on x at world bank has said latest analysis on the economic impact of the conflict on the palestinian economy showed that the gdp dropped by over 80% in the gaza strip and 22% in the west bank, that's for q4, 2023. we then went to a website, israel's warren gaza is strangling the west bank's economy, went to say in the west bank, the gdp has fallen by 22%, unemployment has skyrocketed to 30% up from 14% before the onslot, well they call it the war, we call it the onslot, also saying because of the supply chain bottlenecks, prices are going up, then incomes are lower.

the demand is shaking. next, issue that we have paid more attention to later on in the program, the us treasury secretary janet yellan, urging israel to restore economic ties to the west bank. she said that she had called on prime minister benjamin netanyahu of israel to reduce barriers to commerce for palestinians. then uh, we took a look at another website, it said the gaza war, again they call it war, we call it an onslot or aggression, turns the west bank into economic time bomb, well not to say israel's decision to... ban cross border workers and block palestinian funds has pushed the local economy to the brink of collapse. and we squeeze in one more, the world bank warns on the dire state of the palestinian economy because of the continuing war and its effect on employment and consumption on the west bank. the palestinian authority finds itself in a spiraling fiscal crisis, which can only cope with by increasing rears of payments and through foreign aid. shows how bad the occupied west bank's economy is. doing all

right, let's uh bring in our guest for our first uh q&a of the program, joining us is oliver boy barrett, he is the emiratus, professor of ohio and california university. he's author of many books uh such as the conflict narratives in syria. oliver boy barrett, welcome to economic divide. uh, taking a look at the um, i guess warning that was issued by the world bank on the dire state of the palestinian economy, uh, also on the gaza strip. both are not doing well, there isn't much hope for recuperation at this point, we're wondering how long this is going to take, because the onslot as we speak is still continuing, and uh, what do you think about the future of the occupied west bank given the fact? that you have the the aggression in the gaza strip and the violence that's uh a daily occurrence there in the occupied west bank, what one thing is absolutely for sure is that the uh gravity of the situation uh is unprecedented uh the

situation is extremely uh grim uh as i think you just mentioned we've seen a fall uh in the palestinian economic activity of something like uh 80% uh in the last quarter uh we have seen a total fall off in the uh work permits that would be available for uh gasen uh workers uh in the in israel and uh we are seeing that uh on the west bank uh palestinian workers are no longer uh being allowed to work uh uh on the on the settlements and on other construction activity, you mentioned construction activity, i want to interrupt you there, because we keep hearing about that in terms of how palestinian workers uh are not permitted to not only work there, but how much they contribute to that sector, can you

expand a little bit more for us as to how that stands in terms of their contribution to the construction sector? palestinian, the construction industry in in israel uh is very, very badly uh and palestinian workers, palestinian workers have typically provided 65 to 70% of the labor on israeli projects, including actually, including uh on the settlements in the uh in the west bank, so there's absolutely no uh, it's absolutely clear that the extent of the uh damage to the palestinian economy is immense. all right, thank you for that, at least uh, you gave us an idea there. let's bring in uh our next guest, gabriel suarez, he served in the ecumenical accompanyment program in palestine and israel and hibron and jericho. gabriel suarez, welcome to economic divide. uh, the economy of the west bank is uh in trouble.

you got 170,000 palestinians that have been taken out of the economy because of this really a regime preventing them from uh coming to work. a decline in consumption as a result uh, you have a reduction in the uh tax revenues is another example result of that uh restriction, and this is money that israel collects on behalf of the pa. how can there be any hope for the west bank economy um when you have uh those types of uh practices by the israeli regime and uh what are we looking at uh when it comes to the future uh when there's such violence happening in the occupied west bank as a whole. the situation uh in in the west bank was a really suffering. from the since the beginning of 2003 there has been a stepped up in violence and restrictions with the new government, settler violence was very much problem with palestinians both that in their own places like in the agriculture having their lands taken or restricted or even at their harvest

being stolen or burned by israeli fanatical settlers and also the restrictions for even working inside those big settlements, those israel in the west bank and of course the dependency that they have uh on the remittisence from uh both in the government sector but also from outside so it's very much captive economy as i said before which uh it limits the prospect for freedom there has been many different world bank reports that the restrictions and the takeover of land by israel uh takes a lot from the potentials of the palestinian economy everywhere in the west. time, it's time now for the infinis section of the program. first up, argentina's economy. well, we picked that last week actually, so let's see what we got

for you this week. uh, this one uh is due to the cache that it's requesting from the imf. now the latin american country already ows the imf some $44 billion dollars. and uh this is not good news because one of the reasons is that argentines are blaming auster austerity measures for argentina's worst economic crisis in two decades, the austrary measures, cutting jobs. does not help contribute to the wheels of the economy to move forward, so subscribing to the imf again for argentina, that's not going to be good news, we'll have to wait and see. next up, uh, the financial system of the west is under the spotlight for the russian president, he said that is destroying its own financial system, according to vladimir putin. policies enacted by the us and the eu, according to him have discredited western banking and its currencies. next up, we go to uh news from uh the... continent of africa, in particular sudan, its economy has contracted 40% as this

war there is raging on, state revenues has dipped by over 80%, the economy is continuing to shrink by about 20%, projected for the year 2024. uh next, another economy uh that we picked is india's economy, now may have done well, the gdp has grown quite a bit, but it's masking economic challenges, the amount of growth was... substantial for the year 2023, about 7.3%, yet the private sector response was disappointing and disinvestment increased and that's pretty major for uh india uh the amount of uh the increase was almost 29 uh percent so that's not good news for the indian economy now to sustain this growth the forthcoming indian government must tackle rising inflation uh and economic challenges uh overall but rising inflation is something they have to watch out for. well those were the topics that we picked for the infini section. if you have anything in your mind in wherever part of the world that you're at, do send them to us, contact

information is coming up. in this week's show we'll be inspecting the role of zinus spirings on us university campuses who are using covert methods to stamp out criticism of israel and crush. palestine student groups directly recruiting students on campuses to spy for hostile foreign state to pass the information back to israel so it can then be weaponized and so in particular uh people are docs the personal details are given out they try and stop getting careers or jobs or or to rem the their posts in universities for example so it's it's very much a um covert intelligence involvement in campus politics the growth um of the number. of students from all backgrounds who are joining these movements, but this the growth in their

strength and bravery and in their willingness to confront and challenge in a more sophisticated way than i'd seen in 23 years. section of the program, the economy of the west bank uh when you take a look it is one that operated under a siege. uh, income disparities, as an example between palestinian economy and that of israel shows just that. well, now with the onslot, that situation has become worse, much worse. let's take a look at some of the contributing factors. first up, we're going to take a look at the labor restrictions. why not start with that, which is a delt a financial blow to the palestinian economy? israel has restricted laborers, the number 175,00. as a result, of this restriction uh wages of these workers accounted for $5.5 billion dollars annually,

well that's been taken out of the uh economy of uh the west bank uh it contributed to about a third of the combined economy of both the west bank and the gaza strip. next up we take a look at another factor which prevents money from flowing into the economy, the withholding of the palestinian authorities tax revenues by the israeli regime. those revenues collected by israel on behalf of the pa amounted to around $188 million monthly to pay $150,000 employees. now uh, as an example, israel had with held $275 million, as you see there for the year 2023 in these tax revenues. that includes cash collected for the prior months that was still with tel aviv, but only in the february of this year, and that's not that long ago, they released 114 million dollars. this is how israel sways control over the pa. next let's take a look at uh what has occurred in the uh gdp

contraction uh area when it comes to both the gaza strip and the west bank for the gaza strip uh minus 80% i mean it's it's just incredible of course shouldn't be that much of a surprise you have uh 60 to 70% of the buildings there that have been decimated by the israeli regime forces when it comes to the occupied west bank itself minus 20% and that's uh even that's a that's a good drop cons consider. what is happening there in the west bank, which we're going to get to uh in a second, but this contraction could even be lot worse. let's take look at why i'm saying this contraction could be lot worse. next up. will show you the different areas that we picked in terms of the crisis uh that's uh ongoing in the west bank, you have uh the palestinians killed as of october 7th to amount to 412 so far, taking a look at the palestinians that have been arrested, uh 8,00, some figures put that as high as 10,00 and that's a lot, that's from october 7th mind you, and then homes that have been

demolished, another factor showing the crisis that's uh ongoing there, 200 uh, these uh, this is figure that the un has uh released, including the numbers that have been arrested, so that's what's happening in the occupied uh west bank. um, the the other thing that we need to look at, and this is a side not is because of the operational flood, we're going to see what i'm talking about in this next pointer here, if we can take a look at that uh is the rising popularity of isma hinia and hamas in general uh in the west bank it used to be at around 12%, but now... popularity of hamas has uh almost caught ruble to uh 42%, so it shows how operation also flood in terms of its aim as actually gained more popularity in the west bank and that's very important moving forward uh in terms of what's going to happen in the west bank, well it's like look at uh an overview of what challenges the west bank faces and these are just general nature, economic

crisis uh is obviously one of the things that the west bank is facing uh a contributing factor to that is the conflict that's ' entailed there, we talked about the demolitions, about the abductions and also the number of palestinians killed, financial challenges, one of the big ones, such as the pa uh tax revenue being with held, and also movements uh restriction of palestinians in general leads to some of the major challenges that the west bank is facing. let's bring back our guests and uh see what uh they think about all this uh, we have oliver boyde barrett, rejoining us, emirates professor of ohio and california university, author of many books like: conflict narratives in syria. oliver boy barrett, welcome back economic divide. uh, i'd like to zoom in a announcement uh, slash warning that the us treasury secretary janneth yellen actually issued against netanyahu where it's she said that uh, he needs to take steps to prevent the collapse of the west bank economy. as far as i recall, the us has a almost a direct

hand in contributing to the uh west bank economy uh, not in favor of the palestinians such as settlements, the freedom of movement, indirectly, these are financially supported by the us, so isn't the us actually responsible in some regards? yeah, i think essentially sorry recently got it right when he described the the role of israel for the united states is as kind of aircraft aircraft carrier is the term that he used, so united for the united states, i think he has this right, israel is kind of permanent, permanently anchored aircraft carrier and his purposes to ensure that us foreign policies in the in the middle east are carried out, and that us hegemony is sustained, and that

efforts to resist or to compete with us germany uh are suppressed. all right, let me let me um stop you there and ask you about if you can elaborate a little bit elaborate a little bit more about what you mean by that. i mean uh when you say for example that israel carries out us interest in the region. what exactly uh is israel doing for the us that the us is so keen on supporting uh israel all out and uh almost everything if not everything. the the the function once upon a time under the shire of persia, this was the function for. united states that iran uh once played uh up until the uh revolution of 1979 uh when the role that that iran at once played for us empire uh was shifted to uh to to israel and um i think that is the fundamental purpose of israel to to the

united states but of course there are now this relationship is now consolidated uh by the financial links between israeli or israeli friendly oligarchs in the united states and uh uh the israeli regime and the voting importance of pro israeli sentiment for in particular for the democratic party in the united states so the relationship between israel of the united states is extremely complicated and it basically failed as israely. israeli and not uh palestinian interests. all right, thank you for that. let me bring in gabriel suarez, bring him back. he's served in the... numenical accompanyment program in palestine and um israel in hibron and jericho. gabriel suarez, welcome back economic divide. the um way that the us is uh

almost uh steering uh the uh post-onslot scenario is is now quite evident. uh we know that uh the us president joe biden wants to reform pa in place and then we have now uh janet dellen for example the secretary general coming out, i'm sorry the... west treasury secretary coming out and saying um and warning israel that it needs to take control of the west bank economy, put it back into gear, make sure that it doesn't uh fall apart, why do you think uh she has done that? do you think it's because this becomes an existential threat to israel, the west bank economy falls apart? mean it's it's a it's it's a kind of a bargain because at the same time they want to allow the settlements to try to expand to d from israel to... control the west bank, there is a direct control over rsc which is 60% of the west bank, the major resources, the water is controlled by israel, more than 90% of the waters in the west bank

is controlled by israel, while less than 20% goes to the palestinans and so there is a takeover and and and and the us has been part of that during the os agreement, it has broken that takeover by allowing israel to do what it wants, but not but when we when policy... tried to go to the un or try to move towards pression israel, it always back israel completely, so basically completely a diplomatic immunity thoughts violations that are pretty clear against international laws in every single sense of the word, every in every major can agree on that. "the private sector in the west bank and gaza is estimated to have suffered losses of around $1.5 billion production during the first two months of the conflict, equivalent to $25 million and losses per day. before the

onslot, the world bank had projected growth of 3.2% in 2023, for the economies of the gaza strip and the west bank combined, but it's updated estimate is economic contraction of 6.4%. this means a loss of $2.5 billion when it comes to his gdp. the palestinian authority has also been hit hard, its independent revenues fell 10% in 2023, in comparison with estimates before the onslot, and it would appear that the situation is only getting worse. this deficit has grown fivefold to over $500 million dollars and it is already cutting its employees paid drastically. israel has also canceled work permits for over 17. palestinian workers, which has weighed heavily on demand of the west bank. the west bank economy is mainly driven by the cities in which there have been the most confrontations, including in noblis

and which are under constant military rates from israel. okay, now we're stopping this now to listen to speech by the leader of iran's islamic revolution. people are being exposed to, infants are dying because of starvation and dehydration, this is the climax and the of barbarism and

savagery, this is, this is a really disgrace for the civilization, this is western civilization and this is out in the open for everyone to say, the whole world is watching this, on one hand we also have the resistance front, they have their own military capability on one hand, and then we also have people's resilience and resistance on the other hand, of course has... able to do a damn thing, they have not been able to crush the resistance.

the let's say the majority of let's say close to let's say 90% of the possibilities are still untouched that's what the resistance fighters have announced that for several months they have been fighting off the

weapons.

that help the enemies of this oppressed people, hopefully one day they will be regretting this, and they will also be punished for this treason, and they will, they will, it will approven to them that whatever they have done has been fruitless, hopefully the almighty god will bring further. okay, there was a speech by the leader of iran's islamic revolution, he was addressing number of recitors of the holy quran, and this usually such meetings usually happen during the muslim.