Dependency theorists have often used the words distorted or disarticulated or deformed to describe dependent economies. Today it is hard to find a more distorted or disarticulated economy than that of the Gaza Strip under the draconian blockade imposed by Israel and many aid organizations after 2006 when Hamas won the elections. One Palestinian businessman called Gaza a “graveyard of industries” because manufacturing almost completely shut down (ILO 2009:4); and by 2009 there was literally almost no construction activity except construction of tunnels. While there was some lifting of the blockade in 2010 and more recently, GDP is still extremely low and the unemployment rate higher than in most countries of the world.

Series of Workshops on: Political Economy of Dependence and Independence in Palestine, Fifth Workshop on: “Gaza’s Tunnel Economy: Dependence or Independence?”, The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies (IALIIS) at Birzeit University, September 25, 2012. For additional information, click here.