With most of the world still struggling to climb out of an economic recession, one of the last places on earth most would guess is enjoying near double-digit growth is in the Palestinian Territories. According to the International Monetary Fund, real GDP growth in the first half of 2010 was 9 percent in the West Bank and 16 percent in Gaza. Unemployment dropped by three percent in the first quarter of 2010, as a result of Palestinian construction projects increasing by 20 percent since 2009.

Photo: Bjørn Svenungsen, UD

With checkpoints being removed by Israel, barriers to movement are being removed not just for trucks and movement of goods but everyday people. Israel’s Crossings Management Agency noted a 57 percent increase in pedestrians entering Israel in 2009 from 2008 (2010 numbers are not in yet but projected to continue to grow). In Gaza, following the Government of Israel’s June 20th cabinet decision to ease the restriction on the passage of goods into Gaza, the number of trucks getting in per week went from 385 in the end of May to over 1,100 weekly in the first week of July.

All of this is in Israel’s report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which monitors how resources from donor countries are improving the situation between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors. The AHLC, which is based and chaired Norway (think Oslo), will be meeting on September 21st in New York with its 16 other member states.

The entire report by Israel is online, right here.

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