The headline below is totally misleading. The sub title has it right
OECD: Settlements weaken Israeli economy
Study shows inclusion of east Jerusalem, West Bank settlements and Golan Heights in Israel’s statistic figures reduces per capita income, increases inequality
Sever Plocker, YNET
The inclusion of east Jerusalem, West Bank settlements and the Golan Heights in Israel’s statistic figures reduces the per capita income and increases inequality, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The report, based on new surveys, includes an in-depth analysis of the economy of the settlements and areas annexed by Israel and states that they weaken the Israeli economy.
Here are some of the study’s main findings:
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Israel’s population within the Green Line included 6.7 million residents in 2009. An additional 440,000 residents lived in east Jerusalem, 290,000 in West Bank settlements, and 41,000 in the Golan Heights. From 1997 to 2009, the east Jerusalem population grew by 40% and the settlement population rose by almost 100% – at a pace of 8% a year. The Israeli population within the Green Line grew at a pace of only 2.2% a year during that period.
The settlement of Itamar (Photo: George Ginsburg)
The economic inequality in the territories, which include the settlements and east Jerusalem, is 10% higher compared to the inequality in income within the Green Line – and in both cases it is one of the highest among OECD members.
The poverty rate in Israel, both within the Green Line and in the territories, is the second highest among developed countries – after Mexico.
The inclusion of the settlements and east Jerusalem adds about 4% to Israel’s gross domestic product, but reduces the GDP per capita by a significant rate of 6.5% a year. “Without east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the settlement, the GDP per capita within the Green Line would have been 6.5% higher. The post-1967 territories pushed Israel’s GDP per capita down,” the OECD rules.
In the budget year of 2007, the Israeli government spent some NIS 12.5 billion (NIS 14.5 billion in 2011 prices) on the West Bank settlements, Golan Heights and the annexed part of east Jerusalem – a 10% addition to the State Budget. In addition, NIS 5.5 billion were invested that year in the settlements and east Jerusalem, NIS 2.4 billion of them on housing construction.
It’s like they say “Figures don’t lie, liars figure”.
Regardless of any study or studies, Israel should continue to develop and while they are at it, don’t give up an inch, better still take and demand the Holy Land they have G-d given rights to.
G-d set the border of the Holy Land and He insist on seeing Israel rightfully occupy it.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
I agree with Jerry and would add that the construction cast per meter in most of the settlements outside of Jerusalem cost up to 70% less than most parts of Israel inside the green line. Most of the housing in the settlements are not eligible to preferential ministry of housing mortgages. What about the many industries in the Territories, some could never be moved inside the green-line like wineries, vineyards Israels most popular domestic mineral water company. Industries in the Territories are export oriented. These industries alone sell over $500 million just to the PA. They employ 22000 Arab workers and pay them three times what their Palis counterparts pay including all benefits provided by Israeli Law to all Israeli workers. West bank Industries comprise about 15% of all Goods produce under made in Israel labels and most go to export including the PA.
Take also into consideration the Arab residents in E Jerusalem who bring the statistics down both in terms of lower wages, higher unemployment than most of their Jewish counterparts.
Sever Plocker, YNET . is a smart guy but an ex Stalinist and past editor of the defunct Davar Newspaper owned and aligned with Mapai now called the Labor Party. He may not be a Stalinst but he is still a staunch ideological leftist.
He quoted from the OECD report but provided no direct links to it. Not very professional.
I would say the whole study is misleading and done for obvious reasons.
A study that separates US central cities from their suburbs would show even more “astounding” differences — and be just as astoundingly meaningless. West Germany annexed the East, despite the fact that it made their bottom line look bad for years. Unless Jews want to concede that Germans are less selfish and materialist than themselves, they ought to follow the example of their former tormentors. Family is family, even is some family members are poorer and have more children.
This piece of “research” will become famous for its pure guile and meanness of spirit, which tries to masks its essential Antisemitism as a statistical study.
Yes, indeed, it takes money to raise children. If Israel as one unit and Judea and Samaria would be taken as two separate countries, the cost of education would be amortized over two separate populations and would be comparable if both countries contributed equally to their children’s education. If one country contributed less to education, education expenditures would be lower per pupil for that separate country. Comparing Judea and Samaria where the number of children is higher than Israel within the Green Line as though they are two countries means that Judea and Samaria spend more on education, though the expenditure per pupil is the same. So it would be for healthcare, transportation, and infrastructure.
What the report suggests is that if the population of Judea and Samaria were either to be stuffed into Israel or jettisoned into lunar orbit, Israel’s expenses would go down. If the population were to be stuffed into Israel, the costs would not go down unless the birth rate plummeted – (which it would, given the experience of the Gaza exiles). If the parents and children were sent into space or dispersed like dust across the planet, then Israel’s expenditures would indeed go down, but not its per person expenditures. Therein lies the guile! What the OECD report is suggesting is that those Jews living in Judea and Samaria are having too many children – producing too many Jews! That makes the new Jews a burden to the world, politically incorrect excessive human bloating, thus impoverishing Israel. This analysis is completely understandable coming from an area of the world that has forgotten how to raise children except as extraneous social artifacts of human sexual function.