the Disillusioned kid
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Friday, June 11, 2004

There's an interesting article on the BBC website which suggests that the Gaza withdrawal plan (assuming it goes through) will exacerbate unemployment in Gaza (which already stands at 40-60%), beginning with the closure of the Erez Industrial Zone, an industrial park in northern Gaza which provides jobs for 4,000 Palestinians.

The closure is likely to exacerbate the chronic levels of poverty in the territory. Already 86% of households in Gaza receive some form of humanitarian assistance. Indeed, the move was described by Palestinian Minister for Labour, Ghassan Khatib as "collective punishment" and he argued that any move to close the zone should be co-ordinated with the Palestinian Authority and called for international help to set up new jobs in Gaza.

One section of the article merits particular attention:
The Erez zone had been a model of economic co-operation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli businesses, mainly textile factories, had benefited from cheap labour while Palestinians had enjoyed stable employment.

The factories will be moved to southern Israel and owners compensated.
(Note that there is no compensation for the workers who will be condemned to live in poverty as a result of the closure.) With the move of the factories to Israel, the BBC report that Arie Aron, economics professor at Ben Gurion University "warned that while jobs would be created for poor Israelis the factories would struggle to adapt to paying higher wages." Translation: The Palestinians have served as an easily exploitable workforce, providing cheap labour and presumably reducing wages in Israel proper. A strange "model of economic co-operation" by most decent people's standards. This is hardly an unusual phenomenon. The same situation can be witnessed in the numerous Third World countries where the population are exploited by Western multinationals under the aegis of the phenomenon typically described as "globalisation".

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.