How dangerous is the Palestinian economy? Is it dangerous enough to have trade barriers imposed on it? Is the Palestinian economy such a staunch rival, that fellow Arab States need to engage in a trade war with it? Finally, do Arab States take America's protective measures with respect to its trade with the European Union as a formidable precedent?

The European Union and the United States of America have been engaged in an economic trade battle for a good ten years. The dispute lies in their competitive nature, with each seeking to protect and promote their respective goods and services domestically and on the international arena through several means, such as; trade barriers, (limited quotas, raised import taxes, minimum standard requirements) government subsidies for domestic businesses and import substitution policies. At the heart of this dispute lie the protective measures adopted by the US for companies like: General Electric, Microsoft and Boeing. Furthermore the Agricultural sector has been another focal point, with the US imposing trade barriers on EU beef products as well as, bananas.

The Palestinian economy small as it is, is in dire need of revitalization, reconstruction and renewed foreign investment. According to the World Bank it is estimated that investments of up to $5 billion would be needed to rebuild the infrastructure of Palestinian cities. Almost four years of repeated Israeli incursions, border blocks and curfews have been fatal to the Palestinian economy, virtually suffocating it and hindering the natural business cycle from taking its course.

The figures speak for themselves, according to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Annual Report of 2003; Palestinian unemployment lies at 25.6% as opposed to 45.2% in 2002, Gross Domestic Product lies at $4 billion as opposed to $5 billion in 2000 amounting to a 20% decrease in total GNP, Palestinian exports fell to $353 million in 2002 from $763 million in 1999, according to the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade) foreign trade has plunged a remarkable 50%. Finally the Palestinian economy has an annual aggregate trade deficit of approximately $2 billion, which constitutes about 50% of the total GNP.

In an effort to counter the problems facing the Palestinian economy, the Arab Palestinian Private Sector Forum commenced on Monday September 6th, at a Dead Sea resort in Jordan, to find possible remedies to help the ailing Palestinian economy. Issues discussed on the agenda were:

•  Linking economic relief to economic and social development.
•  Collaborative investment in the Palestinian private sector
•  Opening free-trade channels with Arab countries (lowering entry barriers for Palestinian goods and services)
•  Enhancing inter-Arab private sector partnerships
•  Transferring technology and technical aid.

Prior to the workshop that took place in Jordan Samir Hulileh, chairman of the board of directors at PalTrade said in a press conference that, “Palestinian businessmen have repeatedly called on Arab governments and their private sectors to open their markets to Palestinian products and to stop looking at their fellow Arabs as merely resistance fighters against Israeli occupation. They should start looking at them as potentially successful business partners.”

Even though Israel has trade barriers vis a vis Palestinian exported goods and services, it remains Palestine’s biggest trade partner with 94.3% of all Palestinian exports going to Israel. Left with a mere 5.7% being traded with fellow Arab states. Countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait actually prohibit Palestinian goods from entering their countries, under the pre-text that this would mean recognizing, or in that matter making peace with Israel. However the simple question arises, what does trade with Palestine have to do with recognizing Israel? Other Arab countries such as the likes of Egypt and Libya actually have the audacity to impose trade barriers in an attempt to marginalise the quantity of Palestinian exports flowing into their countries. In someway these actions reflect the actual support Palestine receives on the political level. Funnily enough, Arab products are traded without entry barriers and are available duty-free in Palestine. Why not have trade relationships with Palestine, which is supposedly the number 1 cause in the Arab world, based on reciprocity.

Jordan, Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates represent the only Arab states to comply with the 2001 Arab Summit resolution, “calling for an end to trade barriers, lifting political barriers and exempting Palestinian products from tariffs.” In another statement commenting on this issue Samir Hulileh went on to say, “The Arab world continues to support Palestine, for which we are very grateful. However, there is more that can be done. We urge Arab governments to translate their political backing into ones that can also build business partnerships.”

Palestinian exports come in the form of Non metallic mineral manufacturers, fruits and vegetables, iron and steel, furniture and mattresses, footwear, tobacco products, cork and wood and finally animal and vegetable fertilizers. Ironically the Palestinian National Authority has free trade agreements with Israel, the USA, Canada, the EU, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway. With only partial agreements on free trade, with Egypt and Jordan. Left with the question what about the remaining 20 Arab states?

Pre-1948 Palestine possessed the most vibrant port of the entire Middle-East. The costal city of Haifa, stood as an example to other Arab states of the time of how to wreak the benefits of ones natural resources. It seems that half a century later, fellow Arab states are galvanised by the potential, the current virtually demolished Palestinian economy has.

Last week, Israel barred a UNESCO fact-finding mission from entering the country, charging that the Palestinians had ‘politicized’ the mission before it had even arrived. The mission was tasked with looking into conditions of historical sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, something Israel apparently found to be very threatening.

Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.

Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away. A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance. Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.

The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.

The sad truth is that, on the surface, Israel has succeeded in this to a large extent. Pockets of Jewish settlers now live in the heart of Muslim quarters and aim to take over more and more. Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center. The train, of course, is not meant to service the Palestinian population but rather to connect Jewish neighborhoods and settlements in the city, but the area confiscated from Shufat and Beit Hanina for its construction simply fell into the plan.

What the UNESCO mission would not have seen even if they made it into the Old City is the overall humiliation that the Palestinian population of Jerusalem must endure on a daily basis because of Israel’s military occupation. Trips to the Israeli ministry of interior must be made just to prove that one lives in the city for fear that their residency rights may be revoked; young Palestinian men are stopped randomly by Israeli soldiers to check their ID cards or just to harass them, and settlers are always given the luxury of maximum security whenever they walk the streets. If settlers want to march through the city, the Palestinians are told to close their shops, are barred for hours from reaching their homes if they run along the path of the march and are always the ones blamed if any kind of confrontation between the two sides breaks out.

Jerusalem is being squeezed by these measures more and more each day. But there is always that glimmer of hope, that strength that shines through proving that all is not lost. On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.

The sight of the Palestinian flag waving at the entrance to Damascus Gate was a breath of fresh air. All is not lost and never will be because hope is eternal and determination and strength come from a never-ending spring.

That day at Damascus Gate is what all Palestinians must keep in their minds’ eye in spite of the daily oppression of the occupation. No matter how many missions Israel bars from entering or how many houses it takes over, there will always be those brave souls who, despite the risks, will always raise Palestine’s flag.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

There is no point falling into the pit of countering the claims being made about the death of Mohammed Al Durra, the 12-year old boy from Gaza whose videotaped killing was seen around the world. The boy, crouching in fear behind is equally afraid father as bullets whizzed around them, was killed admittedly by the Israeli army. Later, the army recanted after investigating the tape, saying Durra was killed by Palestinian fire instead. Well now, Israel is changing its story altogether, saying he was not killed at all. In fact, he was probably not even wounded and the French channel that broadcast the footage and brought some pretty bad rap to Israel, had most likely filmed a charade.

The reason why I will not waste my time countering this claim is that even with the great lengths the Israeli government went to to prove that the boy was never killed, it could not provide any irrefutable proof that Mohammed Al Durra – who would be 25 now – is still alive. No pictures, no testimonies, no hospital or morgue officials giving statements to refute his death, have been provided. Only sketchy information about ‘poor quality footage’ and the fact that it seems as though the boy moved his arm after he had slumped over his father following the explosion.

My point is this: indeed, Mohammed Durra’s death was at least one of the catalysts that fueled the second Intifada, and thus, was an important event in the history of the Palestinians. However, more importantly – most importantly to me –is the fact that this is about a boy who died in sheer terror, with his distraught father futilely trying to shelter him from the barrage of bullets coming their way.

Mohammed Al Durra was a boy, with a life, a family and friends. He died a horrible death and now he is being made to die a second one. I did not know Mohammed or his family, but I can only imagine how awful it must be for them to read these claims now and feel the pain of losing their child all over again. If nothing else, this is disrespect for human life of the worst kind.

Some may postulate that the rehashing of the Durra case is a personal jab at the French cameraman who shot the footage, Charles Enderlin. Perhaps. But as a Palestinian who has seen the pain endured by numerous families who receive the horrible news that their sons or daughters have been killed by the Israeli army, my concern is for his family and for his memory. He should be left to rest in peace. If Israel has axes to grind with French journalists or with the international community for holding it accountable for its actions, then so be it. Israel is not lacking in the public relations department.

That being said, there is just one decent thing left to do. Leave Mohammed Al Durra and his memory alone.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

This week Palestinians will commemorate Al Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people when Israel was founded. Every year, Palestinians hang placards pointing to the right of return, they carry keys symbolizing the homes they were forced to leave and could not return to and remember the Palestine that was lost to them 65 years ago.

This year will be no different. Every May 15, Palestinian recall their catastrophe and demand justice. They demand that they are granted the right of return for those who were made refugees virtually overnight and were then relegate to a life they did not choose. But more than anything, they demand recognition of the tragedy that befell them rather than a denial that it ever happened, or worse, that it was of their own making.

It has been 65 years since Israel was established in 1948, which means those who were cast into exile are either very old or have long passed. Those who experienced the Nakba are now few and far between, clinging to those few precious memories of a small garden in front of their house in Jaffa or of the salty smell of the sea in their neighborhood in Haifa. The rest of us are either descendants of these refugees or ordinary Palestinians who feel their cause is our cause because we are one people.

But the Palestinians have made one thing clear. The refugee issue will not die with the last refugee. It is felt nationwide, the loss, the injustice and the fact that those who were forced from their homes have mostly passed, longing for their beloved homes.

We cannot turn back time. What was lost has been altered, destroyed, changed or taken over by Israel’s newcomers. What we can do is hold on to the right to be recognized, for the injustice to be rectified in word and deed and for Palestine to never be lost in our minds or hearts.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.