Comments on the Palestine economy in Arab News, 26 Jun 2019

Dr. Nasser Saidi’s comments on the $50 billion economic stimulus package unveiled at the Peace to Prosperity workshop (held in Bahrain) in the article “Why the Palestinian economy urgently needs a stimulus” published by Arab News on 26th June 2019.
The full article can be accessed at: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1516196/middle-east
Comment are posted below:
Eminent Middle East economist Nasser Saidi told Arab News: “The distortions of the Israeli occupation — the barriers and obstacles — have led to a lack of infrastructure and increasing the cost of doing business.” He added: “A lot of these were put there in the name of security, but many of them are unnecessary. If you want to address the economic issues, you need to remove these barriers.”
He believes that Kushner’s proposals will have only a “very limited” impact. “These aren’t really investments, they’re more like long-term loans to the Palestinians, and you have to question their ability to service the loans,” Saidi said. “What’s really needed is a Marshall Plan for Palestine, but this isn’t it. It barely addresses the issues in Gaza, for example, which is essentially a large number of people in what is effectively a concentration camp. How can they hope to be productive in an economic sense?”