The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development

by Sara Roy

In this ground-breaking and comprehensive study, Sara Roy examines in detail the political economy of the Gaza Strip since the Israeli occupation in 1967. Providing an historical context for Israeli economic policy, Roy argues that despite certain economic benefits that have accrued to the Gaza Strip as a result of its interaction with Israel, Israeli policy in the strip has been guided by political concerns that not only hindered, but blocked internal economic development. The first study of its kind to investigate fully Palestinian economic development in Gaza, The Gaza Strip is of great importance for not only economists and development specialists, but also scholars, policy makers and all those interested in Gaza.

Genres: History, Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Middle East

437 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

Reviews

[Nikita Jayswal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! It gives a complete comprehensive and detailed fact list about the entire occupation and settlement story of the Gaza Strip. One needs to remember that there is are plenty of difference between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and this review articulates it in depth. There are numbers and references to support every claim/fact which makes the read all the more intriguing.

[Zahraa Shabana · Rating 5 out of 5]

تشرح الباحثة في هذا الكتاب التغيرات التي طرأت على اقتصاد قطاع غزة خلال الخمس عشرة سنة الممتدة بين 2000 إلى 2014. ترى سارة روي أن ما حصل في الاقتصاد الغزي خلال الحصار، ليس نتيجة الحصار وحده بل نتيجة لما انتهجته اسرائيل منذ عام 1967، وهدفه هو جعل "القطاع منطقة غير صالحة للحياة"، حيث أن اسرائيل في كل سياساتها اتجاه الفلسطينيين عموماً لم تكن تعتبر الاقتصاد أمراً مهماً، بل ترف يمكن الاستغناء عنه .. وهو ما تفصلّه الباحثة في شرحها لنظرية الافقار التنموي معتمدة على ثلاث مسارات متشابكة تفضي في النهاية لافقار القطاع تنموياً واقتصادياً، هذه المسارات أو السياسات هي: المصادرة ونزع الملكية، والدمج وتوجيه الاقتصاد إلى الخارج، إضعاف البنية المؤسسسية.
الكتاب غني جداً بالمعلومات التاريخية عن اقتصاد القطاع منذ الانتداب البريطاني حتى الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، كما أنه يحتوي على مجموعة مراجع قيّمة، تصفه الكاتبة بأنه سجل عمل ميداني وتحليلات واستنتاجات امتدت من 1985 حتى 2014، في محاولة منها لفهم النموذج التنموي للقطاع في ظل تعقيدات الواقع ومعطياته، في ظل الاحتلال والحصار والانقسام.
الكتاب شيّق، ومصطلحاته العلمية غير معقدة (يمكن لغير المتخصصين بالاقتصاد والتنمية فهمها في السياق)*

[Julian Olbinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

"it was not Gaza's strategic significance that impelled the imposition of Israeli control primarily, but the state's desire to expand. For Israel, territoriality is raised above strategic, political, and economic considerations. 'Land over people' has remained a national imperative since the British Mandate era... official objectives may not have been directed at making political annexation easier, but they were clearly directed at making territorial separation harder. After 1967, Israeli policy in the Gaza Strip was driven less by what it aimed to do than by what it aimed never to do: return the territory to its former sovereign, let alone to the Palestinians who lived there."

Sara Roy paints a very grim picture of what life in Gaza was like under Egyptian and subsequent Israeli military rule. The fact that this was written in the 90s before the Israeli siege of Gaza makes the drastically worsened dispossession of the Palestinians today all the more sickening.

[Brendan Campisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for a materialist understanding of the Palestine Problem. Israel's apologists often question why the country is 'singled out' when it's really just like any other. Roy shows in this book that Israel's colonial project is virtually unique in terms of its conscious effort to prevent any form of Palestinian economic development, and provides an exhaustive analysis of the ways this has been carried out. Reading it today it also serves as a valuable reminder that the imprisonment of the population of Gaza did not start in 2023 or even 2007 but reaches back to the years of the First Intifada.

[Matthew Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for understanding Israeli control and intentional de-developing of any potential state in Gaza. The Israelis have effectively made Gaza un governable, by doing everything in their total power over Gaza to ensure a state to oppose Israel cannot form. Israel = modern day Nazi Occupation.