The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development (Paperback)

by Sara Roy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Sara Roy's pioneering research...gives the lie to pretenses that Gaza's conditions suddenly arose out of thin air..." -- Meron Benvenisti, Former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem

"This meticulous and richly detailed study represents the culmination of a decade's research..." -- Ann M. Lesch, Villanova University

An outstanding book, equally rich in analytical sophistication and empirical detail...To understand the roots of Gaza's economic plight, Sara Roy's book is essential. -- Rex Brynen, McGill University

Sara Roy has collected the only comprehensive set of data on the Gaza Strip which informs her remarkable analysis of the unique pre-autonomy economic patterns...imperative reading for scholars, policy makers and planners engaged in Palestinian/Israeli affairs and in Middles East regional studies. -- Elaine C. Hagopian, Simmons College

Sara Roy's pioneering research...gives the lie to pretenses that Gaza's conditions suddenly arose out of thin air. -- Meron Benvenisti, Former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem

This meticulous and richly detailed study represents the culmination of a decade's research by Dr. Sara Roy on the economy of the Gaza Strip...Dr. Roy's powerful analysis underlines the difficulties that Palestinians face as they seek to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence. -- Ann M. Lesch, Villanova University

Product Description
In this ground-breaking and comprehensive study, Sara Roy examines in detail the political economy of the Gaza Strip since the Israeli occupation in 1967. Providing an historical context for Israeli economic policy, Roy argues that despite certain economic benefits that have accrued to the Gaza Strip as a result of its interaction with Israel, Israeli policy in the strip has been guided by political concerns that not only hindered, but blocked internal economic development. The first study of its kind to investigate fully Palestinian economic development in Gaza, The Gaza Strip is of great importance for not only economists and development specialists, but also scholars, policy makers and all those interested in Gaza.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 437 pages
• Publisher: Institute for Palestine Studies (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088728261X
• ISBN-13: 978-0887282614
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,056,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most comprehensive study on the economy of Gaza, November 17, 1999

By	J. Hammad (Over Yonder) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the most thorough analysis of the economy in the Gaza Strip that I have been able to find. I highly recommend it for those who seek more details than your average sources. Very well documented and referenced as well.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the Daniel Pipes review, July 5, 2002

By A Customer

As usual, Pipes backs up his arguments with nothing save petulant diatribe. Roy's study of Gaza is first-rate and highly recommended by many scholars in the field. A very thoroughly investigated look at the Israeli governments slow destruction of infrastructure and economy within the Occupied Territories.

5 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Gaza Strip, July 26, 2001

By	Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

Though her ostensible subject is Gaza, Roy's emotions are engaged when the subject is Israel. The Israeli government, she writes, "has attempted to dispossess Palestinians of their political and cultural patrimony through the direct expropriation of their economic resources." So intense is her hatred of things Israeli that Roy finds normal language inadequate. Instead, she reverts to archaisms (its military occupation since 1967 has been "malefic") and neologisms (its policy in Gaza has been one of "de-development," a term she made up to mean the "deliberate, systematic destruction of an indigenous economy by a dominant power"). Even when the Israelis do something right, such as subsidize the growing of carnations in Gaza, Roy finds that the Palestinians "suffered considerable losses" from the program, due to the capriciousness of the Israeli marketing company. As for the Declaration of Principles (DoP), the less said, the better: Roy writes that this agreement "will not alter the underlying relationship between occupier and occupied, only its form."

When Palestinian sympathizers like Roy dismiss Yasir Arafat as a sell-out for having signed the DoP, it invariably prompts the thought that they are less interested in the welfare of Palestinians than with the opportunity to vent spleen at the Jewish state. Its academic trappings aside, this would seem to a be a book whose purpose first and last is to discredit Israel.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1996