10-24-2014 Organised Hypocrisy on a Monumental Scale - Robert Wade on the Economic Occupation of the West Bank London Review of Books

http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/10/24/robert-wade/organised-hypocrisy-on-a-monumental-scale

…The average income of Jewish Israelis (at market exchange rates) is around $40,000; that of Arab Israelis $13,000; that of West Bankers $3700, and less in Gaza…

…Under these circumstances [Israeli restrictions] -– which I'm happy to say I have never encountered elsewhere – political and economic development is barely possible. In November 2013, the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said: 'We can talk seriously about a political settlement with the Palestinians when their per capita GDP reaches $10,000 – not a day before that' (because only then will Palestinians have enough at stake genuinely to want peace). This expresses organised hypocrisy on a monumental scale. Until Palestine has substantial sovereignty, including control over borders and natural resources, the conditions for a 'political settlement' will be postponed indefinitely, and the region will remain a generator of conflicts feeding larger regional conflicts – indefinitely….

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

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