Changes in the Economic Structure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israeli Occupation

(LABOUR Capital and Society 15:1 April 1982)

Introduction
The fourteen year occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (WBGS) has brought in its wake many changes. The main focus of attention has primarily rested on the outward manifestations of change in the political sphere, such as the expropriation of land, the building of Jewish settlements, the utilization of scarce water resources, and more recently, the proposed autonomy scheme. Yet the real and longer lasting transformation which has gradually taken place is to be found in the economic structure and the place of

labour within it.
This article will attempt to gauge the nature and extent of this transformation by examining briefly the condition of the WBGS before the occupation, and the changes which have taken place in the composition and distribution of the labour force, the agricultural and industrial sectors, the condition of the trade union movement and the social consequences of this ongoing process of transformation and change on the life style of the inhabitants of the WBGS. Any analysis of future prospects must start from a recognition of the irreversible changes, whether for good or bad, which have taken place and which are reflected not only in the purely economic field, but also in the social transformation which has accompanied them.

The West Bank and Gaza Strip before 1967
Prior to 1967, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip did not constitute a single economic unit, and there was absolutely no contact between them, or between either of them and Israel. While the West Bank was formally incorporated into the Kingdom of Jordan, and constituted from the start an integral part of the Jordanian economy, the Gaza Strip was administered by the Egyptian authorities as a separate entity under temporary military occupation. Despite a network of links with the Egyptian economy, it continued to constitute a separate economic unit, with severe restrictions imposed on the movement of both goods and labour between it and Egypt.
The West Bank under Jordanian rule was accorded a position of secondary

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