MAS Publishes a Policy Brief Prepared in 2020 about: Palestine’s Economy in the Face of the Israeli-US Vision to Liquidate the Palestinian Cause
Ramallah, 11th Nov 2024
In light of recent political developments in both Israel and the United States, Israeli expansionist colonial activities and aggression are now in the realm of open public debate. These actions are no longer just plans in the drawers, they are now at the implementation phase, posing an imminent threat to the economic and national future of the Palestinian people. On the other hand, the policy direction of the next U.S. administration remains unclear and unknown, especially regarding the ongoing genocidal war, the renewed Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, and the broader challenge of finding a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Specifically, it is uncertain whether the new administration will attempt to revive its previous initiative known as the “Deal of the Century” and what that would mean for Palestine’s economic, spatial, and political landscape if it is proposed again, or perhaps even imposed on all parties, within the new regional and global balance.
In these uncertain times filled with risks, MAS recalls its previous research on the economic and political dimensions of the deal in question, as well as the legal Israeli annexation plan that was rejected by the Palestinians at the time and frozen since 2020. However, the colonial project has not stopped since, creating new facts on the ground, in terms of land, institutions, and laws governed by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Institute had closely examined these developments, particularly in two roundtable sessions at which two papers were discussed. The first of these was in February 2020 entitled The American-Israeli Vision to Terminate the Question of Palestine: Economic Dimensions and Potential Consequences of Implementation, and the second in September 2020 entitled Confronting the Economic Consequences of the Israeli Decision to Annex the Occupied West Bank.
For the first time, we are publishing the conclusions from the experts’ dialogue, as compiled by the Institute at the beginning of 2020. These conclusions were subsequently shared with decision-makers to enlighten and support the Palestinian response to these threats and to strengthen societal and economic resilience against their potential impacts.
In this context, Mr. Raja Khalidi, the Director General of the Institute, confirmed that “These research papers and the subsequent experts’ deliberations remain relevant, timely, and accurate in their reading of the situation and their recommendations. They provide a evidenced based summary of what the Palestinian people’s cause and development may confront in the coming stage if the US administration does not alter its policies hostile to Palestinian rights. We will be able to gauge any such change, if it occurs, through an immediate cessation of the Israeli genocidal war, its re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, and its acceleration and expansion of its colonial attack”.
Khalidi added that “even though the competent authorities did not implement the recommendations proposed through MAS at that time on how to confront these existential threats, today is the right moment to reconsider the files of the American “Prosperity and Peace Plan” and the Israeli government’s declared annexation plans. Despite everything that has happened since 2020, especially the expansion of settlements and the destructive war threatening the Palestinian people’s existence in their homeland, we still believe that it is possible to mobilize scientific expertise and the energies of local communities and government policymakers to confront and withstand these not so new social and economic challenges.”
