Dr. Sarah Roy's seminal research book 'The De-development of the Gaza Strip' highlights the consistent Israeli policy to ensure that no economic and industrial development occurs in the Strip. Israeli Professor Avi Shalim, at Saint Anthony's College, Oxford stated that during all those 38 years, even until now:
"The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised
values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding
ground for political extremism."
Guardian, January 7th, 2009
Prior to the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the Jewish settlers, the Israeli military, bypass roads, settlements, buffer zones and military bases took up more than 40 % of the Strip. Just 8,000 Jewish settlers controlled 40 % of arable land.The Water Resources of the Strip were lionized by the settlers. Some 80 % of the Palestinian population lived in abject poverty and misery, subsisting on $2 a day. Juxtapose that with the lush luxurious Jewish settlements, much like in the West Bank. Professor Avi Shlaim also went to say:
"Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the
economy of the Gaza Strip. Gaza, however, is not simply a case
of economic under- development but a uniquely cruel case
of deliberate de-development.
To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of
cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods.
The development of local industry was actively impeded so as
to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their
subordination to Israel and to establish the economic
underpinnings essential for real political independence."
Guardian, January 7th, 2009
As soon as the Oslo Agreements were signed, supposedly ushering in peace, Israel went ahead building a wall around the Strip, turning it into a mega prison with all the dire implications therein!
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