Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has expressed hope that closing off the administered territories to deter the current wave of violence will also help curb unemployment in Israel.
Rabin also said Thursday he hoped the closure would not financially hobble the Palestinians in the territories.
He called upon Arab and European countries to grant economic aid to the territories to enable more job opportunities there.
In the meantime, Israeli farmers, left stranded with no working hands in their fields and orchards, were notified Thursday that some 1,500 soldiers would be sent to them on an emergency and temporary basis to help out in the fields.
A group of 300 soldiers, both men and women, were scheduled to begin working Friday at a flower-packing plant and other groups went to various locations around the country.
The general closure has caused difficulties among Israeli employers, particularly in the construction and agriculture sectors.
Thursday marked the second consecutive day of the general closure, with 120,000 Palestinian workers who usually commute daily to jobs in Israel proper forced to stay home.
Rabin’s hopes were ironically echoed by Shaher Sa’ad, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Trade Union.
Sa’ad voiced hope that the closure would push Palestinians to develop a more independent economy in the territories.
He, too, called for funds to be invested in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Sa’ad said extensive investment in the territories is needed to create an economic infrastructure to supply local work opportunities.
He estimated that closing the territories would cost Palestinians some $44 million a week in lost revenue.
MORE FIRE FROM THE RIGHT
Despite calls for an economic separation between the territories and Israel proper, economic experts have stressed time and again in recent months that years of development would be needed before the Palestinians could make do without relying on the Israeli economy.
Professor Ezra Sadan, a former director-general of the Israeli Treasury, said recently that it could take as long as 15 years before the Gaza Strip could detach itself economically from Israel, even if hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in the region.
Meanwhile, the right-wing Israeli opposition has blasted the government, charging it invited the violence by portraying itself as weak and too conciliatory.
But Likud’s newly elected chairman, Benjamin Netanyahu, also attacked Rabin for closing the territories.
He compared the closure to putting “a thin plastic lid on top of a boiling pot.” He called it dangerous because it drew “future border lines.”
Regardless of the potential long-range consequences of the closure, one fact was undisputable: Thursday was the first day of the week that passed with no stabbings.
Army officers reported a tense quiet in the territories, but no violent clashes.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
