Palestinians export crops from Gaza ex-settlements

[Violet_Crumble]

GAZA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Palestinians exported the first load of crops on Sunday grown in Gaza greenhouses left behind by evacuated Jewish settlers, boosting hopes that Israel's pullout could jump-start the coastal strip's ailing economy.

Officials from the Palestine Economic Development Company (PEDC), which is running the greenhouses, said 2.5 tonnes of peppers left Gaza through the Karni commercial crossing for sale in Israeli markets.

The shipment went ahead despite Israeli threats -- made after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed five Israelis last week -- to limit trade across the Gaza border unless the Palestinian Authority cracks down on militants.

"I am very pleased. The shipment moved without problems. I hope this will be a good start," said PEDC chairman Basil Jaber. Palestinian officials hope to export a further shipment of produce to Europe via the Jewish state next week.

Access to the outside world is crucial to strengthening the impoverished Gaza economy and improving the prospects for peace talks following Israel's withdrawal from the territory it had occupied for 38 years.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11688121.htm

[bemildred]

1. Hope Fuels Palestinian Stocks

Many investors see the 28 companies listed on the Nablus exchange as their best financial bet in an otherwise atrophied economy.

The tiny Nablus-based stock exchange, known as the Palestine Securities Exchange, has been around since 1997 but caught the imagination of ordinary Palestinians only during the last year.

The market's benchmark Al Quds index has more than quadrupled since January, breaking the symbolic 1,000 threshold for the first time Nov. 6 and briefly thrusting past 1,300 since then.

These days, merchants, taxi drivers and housewives with even modest savings are suddenly crowding offices like this one in downtown Nablus. Experts say the surge shows that Palestinians are starting to feel hopeful after five years of conflict, and that the 28 Palestinian companies listed on the exchange are seen as bargains.

Many Nablus investors have come to view stocks in these high-profile firms as their best option because of comparatively low interest rates offered by banks and because so many other industries have atrophied in the face of Israeli-imposed travel restrictions and periodic street combat here.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fg-palstox11dec11,1,173623.story?coll=la-headlines-business

[Wordie]

2. Ahh, the "ownership society." How absolutely ironic!

After years of occupation and oppression, it would be a sort of poetic justice if it was a more benign and appropriate application of this GWB concept that ultimately exposed the oppressive techniques, supported by US administrations for years, as the complete failure they really were. My prediction: the more this sort of thing happens, the more investment the Pals are able to have in their own country/society, the less violence we will see.

[bemildred]

3. I thought it was interesting.

I agree that if they are worried about their own prosperous affairs, they will spend less time trying to blow things up. 400% per annum seems a bit unsustainable to me, though, a cause for concern.

[Wordie]

4. Yes...

I missed that part (not registered w/ LAT), but it would seem to be a concern. I just don't know what it is that one would expect to see with the sudden freeing of an economy. Is this typical? I'm not certain there are any parallels that could tell us if it is or isn't. Let's hope it all works out; for the Pals to have economic success would be a good thing for everyone concerned, imho.

[pelsar]

5. its "unknown"...

obviously 400% increase is neither substainable nor a realistic gauge of the economy...what it is, is a very positive sign of confidence in the future...thats what stock exchanges are all about

[Coastie for Truth]

6. Arab EFT Software

There is also a boomlet in EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) software that corresponds to the Bedouin way of doing business.

The routing from node to node is not load and capacity based (classical network theory) but relationship based (a network search strategy based on "I have dealt with this bank satisfactorily before; bank N-1 has dealt with bank N satisfactorily before; from one end of the world to the other"). "Small town, and rural banking" in a TCP/IP world.

[bemildred]

7. That sort of thing could have other uses.

Security/encryption "trust relationships" comes to mind.