There is more to this story, a side often overlooked. In communities throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a surprising degree of luxury exists alongside the poverty. After receiving billions of dollars in Western aid over many decades, major improvements are visible in the standard of living in the West Bank, as seen in newly-constructed buildings, late-model cars, and luxury items.
This study offers an
often overlooked window into life in the Palestinian Authority. The empirical
data provides a more complete picture of living standards in the West
Bank. The truth is that alongside the slums of the old refugee camps,
which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel
Palestinian society is emerging.
Marwan Asmar, a
Jordan-based journalist with a PhD in political science from Leeds University
in the UK, described this phenomenon upon returning to the West Bank after 30
years:
“There
has been a total transformation since I was last in Howara in the West Bank in
1985. One can see a buzz of activity at the shops, restaurants, offices and
cafes. This wasn’t the sleepy village I saw long ago. Buildings, villas,
mosques and rest areas have been constructed everywhere. There is even a
swimming pool.
This
was certainly not the picture I had in mind. This was not the picture the media
presents – of Palestinians surviving on daily wages of $2 as pointed out by the
World Bank, of high unemployment and pockets of poverty. The people I spoke to
here said many worked as laborers in Israel and were paid high daily wages.
This is how they could build their houses, they told me.16
As speculation continues
about renewing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is important to understand
how the quality of life in the West Bank has improved and how a new Palestinian
society is emerging – one that requires a changed perception of the reality of
Palestinian life.
While the Arab world is
in the throes of a major melt-down – with widespread violence and destruction
in Syria and Iraq, together with serious instability in Lebanon and Egypt –
daily life for Arabs in the West Bank offers a stark contrast to those scenes
of violence and decline.
Since the establishment
of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s, the U.S.
government has committed approximately $5 billion in bilateral assistance to
the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of
international foreign aid.17 Overall, Palestinians receive
approximately $2 billion in aid each year.18 Palestinian
economic analysts estimate that the PA has received a total of $25 billion in
financial aid during the past two decades.19
The CIA World
Factbook reported the poverty rate in the West Bank as 18% in 2011,20 in contrast to Israel’s poverty rate in 2012 of 21%.21
In 2015, life expectancy
in the West Bank was 76 years.22 This was notably
higher than the life expectancy in Arab states of 71 years (in 2012), and the
average life expectancy around the world of 70 years.23
In 2015, the infant
mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza was 13 per 1,000 live births,24 compared with 27 per
1,000 live births in the Arab states in 2013 and 36.58 per 1,000 live births in
the world in 2014.25
In 2015 the literacy
rate for people aged 15 and above in the West Bank and Gaza was 96.5%.26
In 2011, when
Palestinians were asked “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the education
system?” 63.5% answered “satisfied”, a higher percentage than the U.S. (62.8),
Netherlands (60.3), Sweden (61.6) or Japan (54.6).27 The overall percentage in Arab states was 50.0%.28
Palestinians insist that
they suffer from water shortages due to Israeli policies. However, data shows
that Israel has fulfilled all of its obligations according to the signed water
agreements with the PA. The development of water supply systems for Palestinian
communities has been carried out on an extensive scale, much larger than that
called for in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement.
From 1967-1995 the
number of towns and villages connected to running water through modern supply
systems increased from four to 309 communities. In March 2010, 641 of 708
Palestinian communities, which include more than 96 percent of the Palestinian
population, were found to be connected to a running water network. Water supply
networks for an additional 16 villages (encompassing an additional 2.5 percent
of the population) were under construction.
Palestinians claim that
the water consumption of the average Israeli is four times greater than that of
the average Palestinian. However, this claim is not factually supported. In
1967, there was indeed a large gap in the per capita consumption of water. This
gap, however, was reduced during the Israeli administration period and the
difference is now negligible. The per capita consumption of natural, fresh
water in Israel is 150 m3/c/y and in the PA 140 m3/c/y.
According to the PA,
roughly 33.6 percent of their water leaks from internal pipelines, compared
with 11 percent in Israel. Moreover, the Palestinians have violated their part
of the water agreements by refusing to build sewage treatment plants (despite
available international financing). Thus, raw sewage discharged from
Palestinian communities flows freely in many streams in the West Bank.
In 2014, Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, published
an article lauding Israeli employers for their treatment of Palestinian workers
in Israel. The article stated, “Whenever Palestinian workers have the
opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to quit their jobs
with their Palestinian employers – for reasons having to do with salaries and
other rights….The salaries of workers employed by Palestinians amount to less
than half the salaries of those who work for Israeli employers.”
“The [Israeli] work
conditions are very good, and include transportation, medical insurance and
pensions. These things do not exist with Palestinian employers….”
According to Bassem Eid,
founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, 92,000 Arabs from the
West Bank work in Israel each day.31
16.
Marwan Asmar, “A Trip into the Heart of Palestine,” Gulf News (Dubai), June 17,
2015, http://gulfnews.com/culture/people/a-trip-into-the-heart-of-palestine-1.1536536
.
17.
Jim Zanotti, “U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians,” Congressional Research
Service, July 3, 2014 ,https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22967.pdf..
18.
Global Humanitarian Assistance, “Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2015,”
June 2015 ,http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/GHA-Report-2015_-Interactive_Online.pdf p – 141
19. Khaled Abu
Toameh, “What Are Palestinians Doing with U.S. Money?,” Gatestone
Institute, August 19, 2015 ,http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6353/palestinians-us-aid
20.
CIA, “The World Factbook: West Bank,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6,
2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
21.
CIA, “The World Factbook: Israel,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 10,
2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/is.html
22.
CIA, “The World Factbook: West Bank,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6,
2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
23.
UNDP, “Human Development Report 2013,” UNDP, 2013, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/14/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf p – 25
24.
CIA, “The World Factbook: West Bank,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6,
2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
25.
CIA, “The World Factbook: World,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6, 2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html The World Bank, “Arab
World,” Word Bank Group, Date Unknown, http://data.worldbank.org/region/ARB
26.
CIA, “The World Factbook: West Bank,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6,
2015, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html
27.
UNDP, “Human Development Report 2013,” UNDP, 2013, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/14/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf p – 171
28.
UNDP, “Human Development Report 2013,” UNDP, 2013, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/14/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf p – 40
29.
Haim Gvirtzman, “The Israeli-Palestinian Water Conflict: An Israeli
Perspective,” Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University,
January 2012, http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/MSPS94.pdf.
The writer is a professor of hydrology at the Institute of Earth Sciences,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Israel Water Authority
Council.
30.
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik. “Official PA Daily Lauds Israel’s
Treatment of Palestinian Workers – PMW Bulletins,”www.palwatch.org. Palestinian Media
Watch, September 23, 2014. http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=12696,
See also “Palestinian Workers Treated Better in Israel,” I24news.tv.
September 24, 2014 http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/44941-140924-palestinian-workers-treated-better-in-israel
31.
“Palestinian Human Rights Campaigner Excoriates Palestinian Leadership,” J-Wire,
August 27, 2015, http://www.jwire.com.au/palestinian-human-rights-campaigner-excoriates-palestinian-leadership/
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