This is the unnamed Palestinian casualty of Israel’s assault on Jenin

Amid Israeli airstrikes and our political struggle for statehood, we are fighting an economic battle to keep Palestinians in Palestine, the ultimate act of non-violent resistance against the Netanyahu government’s state and settler violence. So why are some U.S. companies turning away?

Sam Bahour
7 min readJul 3

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Smoke rises during a large-scale Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin Credit: MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/ REUTERS

Depending on who you talk to, the Palestinian economy is either in intensive care, a victim of relentless and prolonged Israeli military aggression or it is thriving, exhibiting remarkable resilience in the face of all the challenges it faces.

In May, The World Bank reported that the Palestinian economy had a “bleak” outlook, citing Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and more restrictions on the West Bank.

In June, Firas Melhem, governor of The Palestine Monetary Authority, told a group of business people in Nablus the good news that the Palestinian banking sector was growing and amounted to some $21 billion dollars of capital.

Welcome to Palestinians’ state of “economic schizophrenia”: a mix of development and growth and economic woe all tangled within Israel’s ongoing occupation and a new government with extremist ministers that has made life even more dangerous and deadly.

Make no mistake, even when there is positive economic news, think how much better it should be without Israel’s control of the macroeconomic development of Palestine. So, any good economic news or forecast comes from the hard work on the ground of building a Palestinian economy despite that. That’s why it’s imperative all the major players act to support the Palestinian economy’s normal operation, especially while it strives to make progress under military occupation.

Watching the news, one may be excused for not seeing that Palestinians are engaged in an economic struggle no less intense than their political struggle aiming for national liberation and statehood.

Overnight Monday for example, Israel launched a massive operation targeting a Palestinian militant stronghold inside a refugee camp inside the West Bank…

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Sam Bahour

Writer, businessperson, activist.