the economy of the west bank in israel, as a result of the genocidal war is still suffering from lack of economic activity or low economic activity, many stores. are still uh closed tourism at record low levels and lack of workers top of everything else is playing the economy. whether there's a chance for the palestinians to get back on their feet or for israel's economy to get jump started is the subject of this edition of economic divide. coming up in this program, palestine's economy. first we're going to take a look at the gdp decrease for the in fourth quarter minus 33%. then the west bank gdp, that was a low. of minus 22%, so uh,

there is obvious concern there, unemployment of plus 30%, another concern for the economy of palestine, consumer price increases in the west bank is also a source of concern, lower incomes, supply chain bottlenecks and transport costs are some of the factors, then of we're going to take a look at israel's banks and their credits, well five of them have been downgraded. the higher borrowing costs based on uh the moodies credit downgrading them and also these higher prices are passed to the consumers. israel's genocidal war on the gaza strip and its hostilities toward lebanon has place of

thousands of israelis inside the regime. thousands of israeli settlers have been forced to leave their towns and villages near the regime's separation line with gaza strep in the south and lebanon in the north. the northern occupied lands are primarily agriculture along with tourist spots and tight communities with small businesses. thus the sudden unexpected and unprepared population drop has shocked the economy. in november, the bank of israel estimated that the absence at work of 144,00 evacuated settlers, about 40% of whom fled the north, had caused israel's economy. me about 590 million checkles or $158 million each week. entire businesses, farms and even wineries have been abandoned. some figures estimate that as many as thousands of businesses are closed. on the agricultural front, products that take precious months to nurture and of develop will now grow stale and rot. time now

to take a look at some of the social media posts: first up, the lives of palestinians in the west bank and in the gaza strip are only controlled by the pa and hamas up to point and a very local level, israel controls the economy, the movements and everything else in the west bank and in gaza. next, rethinking the financial infrastructure connecting gaza, east jerusalem and the west bank to the rest of the world, should be a priority to establish a functional palestinian. economy, then janet jallen says travel on commerce restrictions on the west bank in israel's interest hurting palestinian economy and raising the risk of regional conflict. this was a response, but we picked it anyways. it said also a very good question. gaza, pre-war had strong agriculture and fishing industries, strong enough to export goods to israel, the west bank, egypt, and jordan. all right, so you can see how the gaza strip was pivotal when it came even israel's economy, time now. introduce our guess for our first

segment of the q&a, we have first up isabella agostinelli, she is a specialist in palestine studies who joins us. isabella agustanelli, in welcome to economic divide. let me come in first about uh the settlers and the residences on the fake border with gaza and also of course in southern lebanon where they have been uprooted, they're receiving help from israel uh, how much of a hit has israel's economy taken from these people being displaced? yeah uh... actually, i believe that the greater impact on israel's economy does not come from the government's help towards the settlers, of course it has of an impact, but according to an article published by the financial times and other organizations in february, the israeli economy already shrink almost 20% in the final quarter of 20 2000 2023 sorry and was

impacted by the war, obviously against the palestinians from gaza, and this impact was caused in part by the call up of almost 300 thousand reservists and... also by the restrictions imposed on the palestinian workers from the west bank, so the israeli economy is very dependent on the exploration of palestinian workforce, but it is also worth mentioning that the government expenditure with arms and the warfare in gaza, which is very costly, has been greater, that far greater than the help towards the israeli settlers even though israel has a strong war economy. all right, thank you for that, let me... bring our next guest uh, she is marshall baker, she is economic expert at la rusch movement. marshall baker, welcome to economic divide. israel uh has been impacted uh in more ways than one when it comes to its economy, from imports, exports to different sectors like the agriculture or the construction uh sector, but the international

standing has taken a huge hit. my question to you is how badly do you think uh that will actually um spill over to its trade, its international standing taking such huge hit and of course it's economy, the functioning the different sectors in economy, namely in israel, manufacturing, high-tech, agriculture, retail, none of this is normal or can be sustained, what was done in agriculture with high-tech irrigation does not have the labor from foreign sources, which was bad in any case to operate a country based on foreign labor, but none of this is functioning, the uh, even the the uh normal water or electricity, all these kinds of factors cannot be counted on in this situation, time now for the inf news section

the program, we're going to take a look at the... our first entry on bricks and the payment system uh bricks to create what's called a blockchain-based payment system, other measure is in line with the group's plans to cut reliance on western currencies, in particular the us dollar and also financial mechanisms. now what is the goal is to create uh this within the bricks framework uh in order to have an independent settlement payment system that would be based on the most modern technologies such as digital currencies and blockchain. uh, this entry is making some news as we speak, it's about a us port in a the gaza strip, that's what the us has proposed, in order to, according to the us version, step up aid delivery uh to gaza, um, it's been criticized, however, as a distraction, now the plan criticized as

attempt to divert attention from the widening famine in the gaza strip, as israel obstructs aid operations, now our take on that is, why didn't the us helped gaza when it was under a land, air and sea blockade for over 17 years, which led to deaths, malnutrition and diseases, like it is now, albeit a lower pace, all right, something to think about. next up, uh, this country is definitely going through some hard times, haiti is uh, almost on the cusp of a civil war, gangs there have succeeded in transforming their territorial control into social, economic. and military domination, the year 2023 was marked by gang violence, the un recorded over uh 4,700, to be exact, 4,789 people which were murdered, who were murdered, that is, and 2,490 officially kidnapped with homicide rate of 40.9 per 100 thousand inhabitants, which is

more than double that of 2022, and uh, taking a look at the economy, it contracted for four consecutive years and contraction is still continuing. next up, an important corridor for the islamic republic of iran and pakistan, news came out that iran's technical and engineering companies are prepared to contribute to a joint gas pipeline project as well as the renovation of pakistan steel mills. the completion of the gas pipeline benefits pakistan and seems to be suitable option to assist the country overcome its energy crisis. good news for both countries. with that we come to uh an end of our info news section. of course we always recommend you sending us a piece of news, economy and flavor from wherever you are. we would appreciate that. contact information is coming up.

in this episode of irontic we're taking a look a system that allows us to more closely examine ancient findings and uh let us know about the material that they're made from without damaging it. time period that they were from and the location that they originated from and not necessarily found in, and that is all possible thanks to kind of portical accelerator known as the vandday graph. stay tuned, don't miss it section of the program, there are number of ways. that israel is controlling the palestinian economy, a practice that has been going on for decades. let's take a look at

some of the ways that israel is doing that. take a look at this next uh graph here, we took some of the categories that we figured is important and uh one of them is the palestinian resources, which comprises of land, for example, water, that's a very important one, and the next one is natural resources. now when it comes to natural resources, this uh is very important because... some say that the onslot uh may have this uh as a reason for it to happen and it concerns the uh gaza marine as you see over there and uh this uh sec section that's come out here are where these uh gas fields exist and the gas fields are and these reserves that exist in that area perhaps one the reasons for uh the aggression it's valued at $4.592 billion dollars uh it hasn't been uh explored yet so uh the actual amounts uh may either increase or decrease, but there

are foreign companies including european ones who are helping israel loot gaza's natural gas reserves, and it was in late october after the aggression started, i don't if you remember, is when israel announced that it had awarded concessions for natural gas exploration to these uh foreign companies. okay, now next up, let's take a look at another uh item that has been uh very controversial throughout the years and it's called under the israel illegal practices settlements. settlements is illegal under international law uh the um settlements has uh contributed to the negative economic uh uh movements for palestinians, for example 24,300 of them uh from october through december was announced and then just in march of this year 3,500 new ones were announced so uh this was based on the un report uh the size of existing israely settlements has always um expanded marketly and we can't see how that has happened uh no matter who has been in the white house uh to the next uh

item that we looked at and this is another way that israel is exercising is aparthide um practices and their home demolitions now based on what has happened in the west bank from the year 2022 we looked a 55,4 or 55,048 these home demolitions that took place then the gaza's the most recent one is what we can take a look at and you can see how 30000 that's 70% of the total uh structures that exist in the gaza strip have been destroyed and that's another way that israel restricts the expansion of the palestinian economy. the next graph shows how the situation for the palestinian economy has become very dire and this came actually from the world bank in terms of the growth of the 2023 pre-conflict uh had this figure as a projection 3.2%, but then uh when uh we saw the aggression take

place, that figure has been revised where uh the world bank has says that there will be negative 6.4% um contraction attributing this change to obviously the onslot and the overall deterioration in the west bank. okay uh let's see what our guests think about this, let's bring them back uh we have um isabella agostinelli specialized a specialist in palestine studies who... joins us uh, welcome back to economic divide, isabella agostinelli, the aggression um of this uh genocidal war is something that one, there are some that say that even if it means uh that it's going to at some point end, it's not going to mean that uh it's going to be the end of the economic uh ramifications both for israel and for the palestinians, because there's not a political solution that has been reached in the meantime, how bad did you think that will affect investors when it comes to investments in the palestine or the

gaza strip? well, i honestly uh do not believe that investors in general will be worried about the palestinians, of course they will be worried about their uh humanity and everything, but the israeli economy is more important to the investors since israel um gets more investment in general when we when we compare. to the investment investments towards the palestinians, so the end of the war, as you notice, does not mean uh a true and sustainable peace, but since we are talking about a a apartite regime and a military occupation, it is obviously, it is obvious that the occupier power will recover its economy in a more rapid manner compared to the occupied population and economy, especially with the help of the great power, so we must um expect that the great powers

will invest more in israel, and not so much in the palestinians, the palestinians uh until today they rely so much in the humanitarian assistance, the international humanitarian assistance, but in terms of investments um and everything is still very different the the investments compared to the israel, thank you for that uh, let me bring a marshall baker back into the program, marshall baker, economic expert at larosh movement, marshall baker, welcome back uh when you take a look at what's happened uh with the um onslot continuing at the pace that it is, that doesn't seem to be um an end to it any anytime soon, but even if it does end uh there's this uh political lack of a political solution which will compromise and continue to impact both israel and palestine economy um until there's a resolve there, how

do you think things are going to turn out economically speaking? the situation for israel "without economic, diplomatic, political solution throughout the entire region is death for the nation of israel, because there is no basis for any normal trade, any normal investment, any normal education for a future. now there the one way to look at this is the best thing for israel, which is the best thing and long do for palestinians is there are calls for an'. international conference on development, the organization for islamic cooperation has a representative at the united nations, and on march 5th that the un, the israel economy is

also taking hits in other ways, banded houses, stores and other infrastructure are used by design is forces as the security zone expands, only to become military targets for resistance to destroy, but the crisis does not stop there. israel has seen a sharp drop in imports and exports, humani has enforced a crippling and very effective blockade in the red sea and has successfully shut down israel's third busiest port, the port of ilat. spending is also at an all-time low with credit card usage below 70% of the norm. even if the hostilities and recovery for the israely economy would be very slow and could possibly take many years. that's because war has exacerbated longstanding problems. one is the economy's reliance on low-paid palestinian workers. the west bank may import as many goods from israel as before the

onslaught, but it's 210,00-day laborers, equivalent to 5% of israel's workforce cannot get out. permits were canceled after october 7th and the regime is refusing to let them back in, and since israel is refusing to accept a long-term political solution that is acceptable to both. this will negatively impact investor confidence and the economy for israel. hello and welcome to the quick take section. i'm mattian in 1967 when israel continued its occupation of palestine, including al-qutz. it annexed palestinian markets in these areas into its own economy a selective and unequal manner. the palestinian economy was thriving before 1967. it generated production and significant income to sustain a growing population of 1 million people and gave rise to gdp per

capita of around $1,300, making it a low. middle income economy. before the occupation, agriculture was the most important component the palestinian economy. it employed about a quarter of the labor force and contributed around a third of gdp and exports. since the start of the occupation, palestinians have lost access to more than 60% of the west bank and two-thirds of its grazing land. in gaza, half of the area that is capable of being cultivated, and 8 5% of the fishery resources are inaccessible to producers. palestinians have been denied access to area sea and that is a system by design that the israely regime executed so it can't gained the most from the occupied land. the denial of area c to palestinians means that palestinians don't have access to area that accounts for more

than 60% of the west bank and more than two-thirds of grazing land, with more than 2.5 million productive trees destroyed under occupation since 1967. here's a graph showing decline of the palestinian gdp in their own land due to the occupation. and apartite practices by the israeli regime, it is pretty obvious that there has been a declining gdp reflecting the impact of the occupation, which now, with the israeli aggression against gaza, it is bound to get worse. israel also controls the revenues of the palestinian authority, which is in control of the west bank, and that is another way, the regime controls and restricts the west bank economy. the palestinian leakage to israel is in the range. of 3.6% of its gdp, or 17% of total palestinian public revenues. if this did not happen, the pa's revenues could

expand palestinian fiscal policy and increase annual gdp by about 4%, and generate 10,000 additional jobs per year. that's the end of this quicktake segment. don't forget to send us your comments and questions. i'm mattia bosan, and i'll see you next week. the situation for both the palestinian and israely economy looks grim unless there's a viable political solution which does not seem to be on the horizon as of yet. the islamic jod actually said something interesting uh it said that even if the ontslot and aggression ends given that the other um onslot scenarios don't happen, the political conflict will be open-ended, meaning that the economic atmosphere will still be poisonous both in the west bank and also in israel. it's a

great point that he made there. that's with this edition of the program. thanks for being with us, hope you enjoyed it. uh, we did our best to bring you different aspects of israels and palestine economy. if you did or didn't, contact information is behind me, send us your comments. from economic divide. this goodbye until the next program. information about palestine abounds on social

networks, many times without context. they do not allow us to go deeper and understand all the dimensions of a catastrophe that is dragging on for centuries. daniel hodway, chilean mayor of palestinian origin, opens a window to palestine to understand in depth the present cause of the palestinian people, exploring its history and future prospects. do not miss a window to palestine.

the resistance is also ready to defend the palestinian people. with the same intensity and longer than the enemy may expect. "first

of all, he threatens the operation in rafah, but this threat from the resistance perspective has no weight, because even if they enter into rafah, this won't change the situation on the ground. and i believe that the issue of rafa is going to be delayed, because the zionist army is not ready for such a battle, and in any case it won't change the facts on the ground because israel. will not do in rafah more than it did

in gaza or in the north. after michael gove, the uk's secretary of state for leveling up, announced the government's redefinition of extremism, we'll be examining the implications of his statement in this week's show. we have effectively sign this interests, using a think tank to talk to government, but then the their views are then taken on by government. people who are appointed by government, come from the think tank itself, this new definition of extremism, it's not statutory, um, but it doesn't mean that it won't have impact, this will have impact on the ground, of course it will, if you look at charities for example who are trying to host events with these organizations, they may have to jump through extra herdles via the charity commission in terms of if you're inviting an extremist speaker and technically they will be on that list of extremist speakers.

you press the headlines, the death toll from 170 days of genicidal war in gaza tops 32,100. un chief describes blocking aid for the territory as moral outrage, palestiny resistance fighters ambush and israely military vehicle north of the city of two carm and the occupied west bank killing a number of soldiers, and lebanon's hisbolla fighters fire over 60 rockets at israeli military targets after regime warplanes strike the northeastern lebanese city of balbec.