Industrial Estates Along the Wall

[Violet_Crumble]

by Meron Rapoport
June 18, 2004
Le Monde Diplomatique

The farmers of Irtah, a village near the West Bank market town of Tulkarem, can still see their land. But they haven’t had access to it for more than a year because the trenches, walls and barbed wire of Israel’s "security fence" lie between their hilltop homes and the fields. Now the Israeli army is threatening officially to confiscate the 500 dunams they are forbidden to access (1). The fate of this land is almost certainly determined: an industrial estate will be built astride the fence, funded jointly by the Israeli authorities and Palestinian entrepreneurs. The farmers, left without land, will have no choice but to work in the new factories for a minimum wage set at barely a third of Israel’s official minimum.

Tulkarem is not alone. While the fence is a long way from being finished (200km out of a planned 700km have been built), Israel’s minister for industry, trade and employment, Ehud Olmert, is pressing for a chain of industrial estates to be set up along its length. Some sections of the army, especially those engaged in patrolling the Palestinian territories, consider this project as a continuation of the fence.

"You’ll see, it will be very nice," said the commander of Tulkarem’s military headquarters as he inspected a gate in the wall, which encroaches on Palestinian territory by almost 3km. The Middle East division manager at the industry and trade ministry, Gabi Bar, said: "We will set up an industrial park here and it will be just fine. The Palestinians really need sites like this."

If the security situation were not so delicate, these estates might be built in the Nablus area: as it is, lining them up along the wall is a less risky option. The idea is not new. After the 1993 Oslo accords Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed a plan to create nine industrial estates along the Green Line (2) in the West Bank and Gaza. From Jenin in the north to Rafah in the south, the estates were to provide jobs for some 100,000 Palestinians. With the start of the intifada, the plans had to be shelved. Days into the uprising, an angry mob of Palestinians burnt down the embryonic Buds of Peace estate near Tulkarem. Another estate, near the dam at Erez on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, has been frequently attacked by the Palestinian resistance.

However the estates are still functioning and 4,500 Palestinians have jobs on the Erez estate while 500 work at Tulkarem’s Buds of Peace. But until now no one had considered building a new industrial area along the Green Line. The idea has been revived because of the wall. This barrier has exacerbated the already chronic problem of Palestinian unemployment (45% in the West Bank and 60% in Gaza); 120,000 Palestinians who worked legally or not in Israel before 2000 can no longer go there. And tens of thousands of peasants are now separated from their own lands by the wall. Yet Israeli businesses feel confident about estates near the wall because of the high level of security.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=5735

[Classical_Liberal]

1. I am not surprised there is a globalization element to this story

. What do you want to bet Dr Don's palestinians, who love the wall, are profiting from this cheap labor scheme? This is really going to help the situation. It is pure colonialism. Meanwhile working class Sephardic Israelis will lose their jobs to this cheap prisoner labor source will vote for the theives that are implementing it, because they think it makes them more secure. Fun! Fun! Fun! Here are the most interesting parts of the article.

In January 2004 Olmert was a guest at a conference organised by the renowned Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer, who is behind a programme for the construction of 100 industrial estates in the region. Wertheimer said: "It is better to occupy people with work rather than let them turn to terrorism." Yet Israeli businesses are motivated neither by philanthropy nor by the promise of peace. "Why do you think the Erez industrial estate is still attractive for 200 factories that have stayed put despite all the terrorist attacks?" asked Gabi Bar. "The most important motive is the low wages paid to the workers: around 1,500 shekels ($332) as against 4,500 shekels ($995), which is the minimum wage in Israel. What is more, the employers don’t have to abide by Israeli labour laws."

There is also a plan, Bar said, to create Palestinian enclaves on Israeli territory, again exempt from Israel’s labour laws. But Israel’s leading trades union, the Histradut, is opposing any kind of apartheid between Israeli and Palestinian workers.

The Israelis may well have another reason to invest along the wall. The largest factory on the Tulkarem industrial estate, Geshuri, specialises in pesticides and other chemical products. Until 1985 it was located near the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, but local residents complained of its horrible smells and it was moved to the West Bank. The PA demanded unsuccessfully that Geshuri be moved away from Tulkarem. The factory’s managing director, Raanan Geshuri, has thrown its doors open to anyone who wants to check that it is safe. But if it failed to be accepted in Netanya, it is unlikely to convince the residents of Tulkarem.

[Classical_Liberal]

2. I wonder if Labor actually has a different position on the matter

If you read today's Haarets it appears Perez is in a pissing contest with Netenyahu, and says he won't join Sharon's coalition unless there is a change in economic party. Netenyahu is telling labor to buzz off. I personally consider the Gaza plan to crumbs substituting for a real two state solution, so I don't care wither Peres get's pissy, but I do wonder what has happened to Labor theoretical labor agenda. Labor is atleast suppose to represent the Israeli working people. This plan hurts them as much as the Palestinians.