MAS Conference 2007: Forty Years of Occupation… Forty Years of Arrested Development
In June 2007, marking the fortieth anniversary of the June 1967 War, the Palestinian people had endured four decades of an occupation that relentlessly sought to marginalize them, compel their displacement, destroy their institutions, and appropriate their resources. The policies and measures imposed by the occupation resulted in the systematic deterioration of the Palestinian economy, deepened its dependence on the Israeli economy, constrained opportunities for growth, undermined development efforts, and contributed to a declining standard of living.
In December 2007, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) dedicated its annual conference to reviewing this historic period and analysing the transformations in economic thinking, economic policies, and the socioeconomic reality in Palestine over the preceding four decades. The conference examined the theoretical approaches and actual performance of the three principal actors that had shaped, and continue to shape, the Palestinian economy: the Palestinian people, including both the official and non-official sectors; the Israeli occupation, its policies and institutions; and the international community, particularly Arab countries and international organisations that reflect its orientations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others.