To read the whole bulletin, click here <http://www.alternativenews.org/images/stories/downloads/Socioeconomic_Bulletin_17-18.pdf>.
*Introduction* This report updates and expands upon the report: /Foreign Aid to Palestine/Israel/ originally published by the Alternative Information Center in June 2005, and revised in February 2006. Foreign aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) was the first topic addressed by the Alternative Information Center’s Economy of the Occupation project. It has generated substantial reader interest, drawn large audiences to lectures generated more speaking tours, workshops and seminars than any other topic addressed by the project. Although less than four years have passed since the original report was published, many political changes in the region have led to a change in aid policies. These events include the January 2006 Palestinian legislative council elections and the changes in the status of the Gaza Strip. Thus a new look at the topic is warranted. Aid must be understood in the context of the worldwide attention paid to Israel and the OPT, despite the fact that the region is quite small (about 29,000 square kilometers—or roughly the size of Massachusetts), and its inhabitants number less then 0.2% of the world's population (at around 10 million). The immense interest in the region by the media and international diplomats seems disproportionately large when one considers the size of the region as well as the fact that the area is neither extremely wealthy nor extremely poor, and contains no resources of crucial importance to the world's economy.
The immense interest in the region by the international community seems disproportionately large. Years of bloody conflict have weakened both Israeli and Palestinian economies, though the latter has suffered the brunt of the decline. Because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays a central role in international politics, significant aid has been sent to the region. Currently, foreign aid (in the form of humanitarian assistance and development aid) is a defining feature of the Palestinian economy. The amounts of aid sent to the OPT and Israel are among the highest per-capita aid disbursements in the world. This report will attempt to understand the reasons for this, and to assess the ways in which aid affects the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To read the whole bulletin, click here <http://www.alternativenews.org/images/stories/downloads/Socioeconomic_Bulletin_17-18.pdf>.