An evaluation of the role of Oslo Accords in the West Bank industry: an economic analysis of the 1994-2016 period

Abstract

To understand the reality of the West Bank industry and several of its main obstacles, it is impossible to neglect the influence of past political events. In fact, the recent changes of the Palestinian geopolitical context have been causing direct impacts on the Palestinian economy in general and on the industrial sector in particular. One of the most relevant recent political events that influenced the evolution of the Palestinian society and economy is related to Oslo Accords signed in 1993, which has created the conditions for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. The main objective of this article is precisely to evaluate how the new political conditions achieved with the creation of the Palestinian Authority have impacted the West Bank industrial development, in a sequence of three distinct phases: the first phase is from 1994 to 2000 matched with the beginning of the Palestinian Authority, and goes until the onset of the Al- Aqsa Intifada. The second phase is from 2000 to 2004 matched with the Al-Aqsa Intifada (or Second Intifada); and the third phase from 2004 until the present time, started with the stability achieved after Al-Aqsa Intifada. Methodologically, this study is based on a historical approach crossed with a statistical and cartographic analysis of data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The results demonstrate how erratic is the evolution of the West Bank industrial sector during this period, and that almost 25 years of the emergence of the Palestinian Authority, the weakness of the West Bank industrial sector still persist, in part as a consequence of external forces, namely all the impositions done by Israel to limit the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority to control its territory and economy.