Ending the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Includes Repaying Debts

This bridge in the northern Gaza Strip was destroyed by Israeli war planes in June 2006, and later rebuilt with international funds.

The occupied Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip survive the harsh conditions and severe limitations on movement because of the humanitarian aid disbursed by the international community.

Israel relies on this assistance, because it prevents the Palestinian population from starving, preventing the full brunt of Israel’s occupation regime from being realized and thereby limiting the level of international pressure on Israel. Israel forgets, however, that this aid erases neither its responsibility nor debt to the Palestinians. Israel’s mounting debt to the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, for the past 40 years of occupation, only adds to the debt it continues to accumulate to the refugees expelled in 1948.

Since the 1990s, donors (particularly from the European Union countries and mostly through the UN) have been transferring money to the Palestinians. These donations were made with intention to establish an economic infrastructure that could sustain a future Palestinian state. Through these steps, donors were hoping to contribute to bringing the 1967 occupation to an end through a two-state solution.

The State of Israel, however, never accepted this vision, and the Israeli authorities continued its occupation policies to prevent the development of a viable Palestinian economy.
International assistance was invested in building infrastructures, industry and promoting tourism, but resulted in nothing as the construction projects suffered from restrictions, raw material could not be freely imported and workers could not reach the work sites. The Israeli military has even bombed several construction sites. AIC