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On the Road to Nowhere, Merchants Pay the Toll
Once-thriving businesses along Route 505 in Mas-Ha, West Bank, have all but collapsed since the arrival of the $2.5 billion, 456-mile separation barrier.
(Photos By Ilan Mizrahi For The Washington Post)
VIDEO | West Bank Barrier Blocks 'Route 505' Economies
The village of Mas-Ha, once a hub on a highway between Israel and occupied Palestinian territories, has lost its economic base since construction began on a 456-mile barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. TOOLBOX
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Most of his clients were Jewish residents of Israel.
"We called it the million-and-a-half-shekel market because that's what we made each weekend," said Amer, 38, referring to the Israeli currency the two economies share. "Now it's zero. Since the fence went up, no one comes here, not even Arabs."
According to the World Bank, the Palestinian gross domestic product per capita has shrunk 30 percent -- to $1,129 -- since the uprising began. Unemployment and poverty rates have spiked across the territories, especially during the 16-month international embargo that followed Hamas's election victory.
By contrast, the International Monetary Fund estimates that Israel's per-capita GDP is $31,767, nearly double what it was on the eve of the Palestinian uprising.
Amer's brother, a partner in the business, has moved to Jordan to work in their father's store there. His other partner also has departed, leaving Amer with a wall lined with Hebrew-labeled hardware products and no one to buy them.
"If I get the opportunity, I will leave too," he said.
In Bidya, east of Mas-Ha on Route 505, a sign in Arabic reading "Abu Sayed Furniture" has been pasted over one in Hebrew that advertised clothes.
"It was clear that the Israelis do not come anymore," said Sayed Marai, a taciturn father of five, who made the language change after moving from Mas-Ha a few years ago.
The chests, cribs and bed frames spilling out of his small space are featured items in a Palestinian bride's dowry. After the two-month wedding season, Marai said, "we can go days without making a single shekel."
"I have no alternative," he said. "There is no other work."
The more than 550 military checkpoints, roadblocks and other obstacles within the West Bank, along with restrictions presented by the 456-mile separation barrier, have made it impossible for many Palestinian merchants to attract customers outside their small local markets.
The commercial obstacles are even more severe in Gaza, which Israel recently declared a "hostile entity," citing the persistent Palestinian rocket attacks originating there.
