Abusing Palestinians equals economic boom for Israel: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Anthony Hall, a professor of globalization at Lethbridge University, about the UN saying Palestine’s gross domestic product (GDP) would be twice the current figure if not for Israel’s occupation.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: What are your sentiments with respect to this report which concludes that the Israeli occupation has significantly kept back Palestinians' economic progress?

Hall: This documents the reality of human rights violations, the subordination, the treatment almost as subhumans of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza and the occupied territories.

All kinds of factors are at play here. As the settlements expand, the space available for Palestinians diminishes. A million olive trees have been destroyed. There is a de-agriculturalization, a de-industrialization. Markets are fragmented; people and businesses are kept from accessing international trade. And this leads to a huge disparity between the life quality of Israelis within the wall, within the inner sanctums of Israel, and those on the outside;  those treated as subhumans by Israel.

Press TV: In your view, can the Israeli occupation persist and, through some kind of reform or allowance, allow Palestinians to thrive or do you believe that occupation will always inherently lead to an oppressed Palestinian economy?

Hall: Of course the possibility of a genuine Palestinian state is diminished as these settlements expand. One of the ironies is that the society of Israel, the Jewish state of Israel, depends on the business generated by its suppression and maltreatment of Palestinian people. They produce the so-called security workwear, torture materials, all kinds of businesses involved in police work. [They] bring police forces from other parts of the world to look at how Palestinians are being treated.

Ironically, the maltreatment of Palestinian people is an economic boom for Israel. Israel exploits its identity as a sort of industrialized, sophisticated violator of human rights.

Press TV: This sounds like a matter that would be better heard before the ICC, and let them decide on the legality of this occupation which is systematically crippling another society’s economy. What do you think about that?

Hall: We know that rules and laws are being violated left and right. The rule of law at the international level has become a sad hoax and the Jewish state of Israel demonstrates that there is really no mechanism these days to enforce adherence to international law.

This has to change. This is something that humanity collectively has to deal with: the serial violation of the rule of law that has become entrenched and is on full display in the Israeli treatment of Palestinians.  

Press TV: How do the Palestinians get recourse in this matter? Is it from the ICC or do they have to look elsewhere?

Hall: I think Palestinians have to look to the world community and decent men and women of conscience. We see in Sweden, for instance, there are places where politicians come forward. But of course the enormous power of the Israeli lobby in countries like Canada, the United States, France and Great Britain makes it extremely difficult to lobby our politicians domestically.

We have to find ways of creating solidarity with the Palestinian people themselves and creating forms of interaction and networks of trade that transcend some of the restrictions being imposed illegally.

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