Halpern: Cutting off their own nose to spite their face

I'm thinking

by Micah Halpern

From now on, Palestinians are forbidden to work in Israeli settlements. From now on, Palestinian shops are forbidden to use, stock their shelves with or sell any products made in a settlement. Palestinian leadership is forcing Palestinian society to physically separate from the Israeli settler community.

It is not Israeli settlers who will suffer the consequences of these new laws. It is industrious, hard-working Palestinians — now denied a source of steady income, who will suffer.

In the name of chauvinism and national pride, Palestinian leadership is kicking their own citizens when they are down and hurting. There is no replacement for the jobs these workers will be losing inside the Palestinian Authority. This is not a Palestinian job initiative program; these workers will not be re-trained or re-employed by their leadership. What they will be is jobless and poor. And whatever sense of self-esteem they received from doing solid, honest work, albeit for Israelis, is to be taken away from them.

That’s how much Palestinian leadership hates Israel. That’s how little Palestinian leaders understand and care about their own people.

For their part, the settler community prefers hiring and working with Palestinians — but the jobs will not be left undone. There are foreign workers galore to fill all open positions. Workers from Thailand and China are willing to do more for much less.

Palestinians chose to work in settlements in order to make money, to bring home a salary. There is practically no economy within the Palestinian Authority. According to Israeli sources, Palestinian businesses purchase and sell anywhere between $200 to $500 million dollars of product produced in the West Bank. That’s US dollars, not Israeli shekels.

Much of what Palestinians buy are foodstuffs. It is cheaper, easier, and simpler and there is less of a chance of making mistakes when you distribute and purchase food and goods locally. Perishables make it to markets when they are still fresh. Dry goods have a better chance of arriving unbroken. There is less room for thievery and illegal shenanigans. The B&B Pretzel Company, also popular in America, is one of the largest industries in the region. The settler community will feel the stoppage when their products are no longer bought or sold by their next door neighbors, but they will have little problem selling their goods elsewhere.

Certainly, industries and communities in West Bank settlements take risks when they hire local Palestinians. Most of those risks involve security and sabotage. The reason the settlement industry prefers Palestinian to foreign workers is because these local workers realize what their leadership does not — they realize that they have a stake in the success of local industry; that successful local industry is good for everyone. When trusted employees bring in more and more co-workers, their families and villages prosper. Foreign workers need to be sheltered and housed, they come with their own problems like heavy drinking and lack of creative initiative — Palestinian workers work, show initiative and then go home.

Palestinian leadership believes that these new laws will have an impact on international affairs. The largest impact they will have is on Palestinians — people trying to work hard and earn a decent living, people hoping to buy quality, inexpensive, local goods and products. Now, all that is to be denied them and they receive nothing in return.

In the end, these draconian laws will only serve to further isolate Palestinians and to destroy the ingenuity, creativity, self-respect and independence of people who actually made it, who found work in a crisis environment.

Once again, I say shame on Palestinian leadership.