Globalization, the Palestinian Economy, and the "Peace Process"

Notwithstanding the peace process, the areas of the West Bank and Gaza under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority remain dominated by Israeli economic policies and are subordinated to the prescriptions of international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, which played a central role in designing the PA economy. The article concludes that the PA's unquestioning adoption of neoliberal economic policies favoring foreign capital at the expense of local capital has further weakened the local private sector and resulted in a kind of "development" that does not serve the population.

Adel Samara, the editor of Kana'an, a quarterly review, is the author of several books, including Industrialization in the West Bank: A Marxist Socio-economic Analysis (1992), and Palestinian Refugees: From the Right of Return to the Internalization of Defeat (1999). Samara was one of twenty arrested on 27 November for signing a petition criticizing PA corruption, but was released 19 December.