Palestine

 

“HALHUL, West Bank — Kalila was 14 years old when she married her 32-year-old second cousin. She was also 14 when she became pregnant. Neither her marriage nor her pregnancy were her decision; ashamed and embarrassed, as well as afraid of giving birth, she decided to get an abortion. It was a harrowing decision, and one she told no one about. At five months pregnant, Kalila — whose name has been changed — climbed atop a 9-foot stone wall in this Palestinian city and tossed herself off of it, belly first.” 1

Kalila survived, the fetus did not. At the time this article was published, she was 40-years old with six children. “With her achy joints and wrinkled face…she looks more like 60.” Abortions are illegal under Palestinian law, contraceptives are not.2

I hope it will serve a purpose for me to illustrate some facts I dug up about the Palestinian territories. I will compare Gaza and the West Bank separately where I can. I apologize for the teacher-thing; it’s a genetic defect.

Almost every evening TV news brings more death and destruction in Gaza to our family rooms, but what often gets my attention is the number of young men and boys crowded around pancaked Hamas hideouts, gawking at the damage. No doubt some of them are Hamas fighters, or soon will be. A February 2, 2000, article in the New York Times claimed the “high fertility rate of seven children per woman (Gaza) is comparable to Somalia’s or Uganda’s”.  But the survival rate is high, and adults lead a reasonably long life. A Palestinian paper, published in the well-respected English medical journal, The Lancet, found most women employ contraceptives, but don’t really know how to use them. The consequence of this is a population with more than 50% under the age of 20. Depending upon the source, fertility rates vary all over the lot, from 8.12 in 2000, to 4.06 today, with Gaza currently at 4.5 and the West Bank at 3.6. Several U.S. organizations have weighed in on this subject, including previously published data aggregated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. I remain suspect of the truth of this trend in just over 20 years.3,4

 Before this war the life expectancy of a 20-year-old, according to our own National Institutes of Health figures from 2010, was age 73. That is no great shakes; Gaza ranks #121 in the world by this measure. However, if a person can escape chronic disease – not to mention war, he or she can live well into their 80s. A slowly rising rate in life expectancy in Gaza has experienced significant dips during wars with Israel.  After this one, unfortunately, it’s likely to bottom out.

 In Gaza, as of 2022, less than one in five people of working age were in the labor force, and the unemployment rate was 45.3%. Compare that to the West Bank: the unemployment rate was 13.1%.5 If that is not enough to get your attention, in Israel for 2022, the unemployment rate was 3.8%,6 A factoid, UNRWA is the second largest employer in Gaza with more than 13,000 Palestinian employees in Gaza.7 It is compelling to compare that figure to reports that Israel was working toward allowing 20,000 Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank into Israel for work before October 7.

Over 96% of Palestinians are literate as of 2020, and 20% of the combined population have a college degree. Enrollment in tertiary education (universities, colleges of education or technical schools) in 2020 was 45%.8 The education figures represent Gaza and the West Bank together. These percentages are among the highest in the world. Finally, there is a staggering disparity in economic output. Palestinians with a population of 5.88 million produced a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2021 was estimated at $US27.8 billion.9 Israel, a country of 9.6 million, recorded GDP of $US488 billion.10

Unemployment and restricted movement obviously help explain how radicalization takes hold among young men. However, putting the politics of the region aside, it is bewildering how Israel was able to make an arid land bloom and create a modern economy when a population next door, with remarkable literacy and education rates, is still mired in disarray and poverty, under the thumb of terrorists. Why? It can be summarized in one phrase: lack of good governance, manufacturing, and service sector investment in their economy. (Of course, the siege of Gaza is to prevent the flow of material to be stolen by Hamas.) Then it becomes a web of interrelated reasons, all of which point back to the ‘why’: a fragile, feckless Palestinian Authority.

Palestinians have been receiving humanitarian aid every year since 1948. However, for the period 1994 – 2020 they received $40 billion, mostly from the U.S. the EU, UNRWA, and a host of other acronyms, as well as Japan, Canada, and individual Western European countries.11 The White House even announced a $100 million aid package to Gaza on October 18, 2023.12 Not once did I find a penny directly contributed by Russia, or China.

 Class dismissed.

 If you are interested, here is a short sketch of the recent history of the region.

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/

 

Sources

1 Foreign Policy from December 4, 2015.

2 Shahawy, S. in Health and Human Rights Journal, December 2019, appearing in National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

3 Pell, Stephanie, Global Public Health November 2017, appearing in National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

4 CIA World Factbook

5 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IRBD) –       World Bank

6 Central Bureau of Statistics Israel

7 United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

8 World Bank

9 CIA World Fact Book

10 World Bank

11 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

12 United States Agency for International Development (USAID)