Shir Hever The Economy of the Occupation A Socioeconomic Bulletin Israel and the OECD № 26 * August 2010 Shir Hever Economy of the Occupation ___________________________________________Socioeconomic Bulletin № 26 Israel and the OECD ___________________________________________ August 2010 Published by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) http://www.alternativenews.org/ Jerusalem Beit Sahour 4 Queen Shlomzion Street Building 111 Main Street PO Box 31417 PO Box 201 Jerusalem, Israel 91313 Beit Sahour, Palestine Phone: 972-(0)2-624-1159; 624-1424 Phone: 972-(0)2-277-5444 Fax: 972-(0)2-625-3151 Fax: 972-(0)2-277-5445 Editor: Tania Kepler Graphic Designer: Tal Hever Printer: Latin Patriarchate Printing Press Cover: "Global Handshake" (left/right) Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of Estonia; Felipe Larrain, Minister of Finance of Chile; Benjamin Netan- yahu, Prime Minister of Israel; Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy; Borut Pahor, Prime Minister of Slovenia and Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD at the OECD Conference Centre, Paris, France. Picture by Andrew Wheeler/OECD (27 May 2010). Some rights reserved: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en. This research was conducted with the assistance of Diakonia. The AIC further wishes to acknowledge the partnership of: Advocacy Project, Associazione Comunita Papa Giovanni XXIII, Ayuntamiento de Xixon through the help of Paz con Dignidad, the Basque government through the help of Mundubat, Broederlijk Delen, the Catalan Government through the help of Sodepau, Comite Catholique Contre La Faim Et Pour Le Developemment (CCFD), Diakonia, Gobierno de Espana—Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperacion through the help of Mundubat, Inter-Church Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO), the Irish Government through the help of Christian Aid and Junta Castilla-La Mancha through the help of ACSUR Las Segovias. Some rights received to The Alternative Information Center (AIC). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License (USév3.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ Table of Contents Introduction 5 What is the OECD and What Does Israel Gain From Membership? 8 why israel does not make the grade: 1. Statistics and Borders 11 2. Economy 16 3. Education 23 4. Poverty 26 Why Did OECD Countries Not Object? 28 Lobby Efforts in Paris 30 Protest 32 Conclusion and Repercussions of Membership 33 Bibliography 35 Special thanks to Emir Richmond and to Tania Kepler for their editing contribution, and to Maria Chiara Rioli for her invaluable assistance in translation. Many thanks to the Boycott National Committee (BNC), Badil: Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and to Professor Karma Nabulsi for the information used in this publication. Israel and the OECD | 5 Introduction n 1993, Shimon Peres, then Is- voted against inviting Israel (Basok, raeli foreign minister, initiated 2010; OECD, 2010c: 3). IIsrael’s request to join the Organ- Although a group of Irish sena- isation for Economic Co-operation tors and parliament members signed and Development (OECD) (CIDSE, a petition appealing their government 2010). This was part of a strategy to vote no to Israel’s accession, Ireland adopted by Israel in 1990 to use the eventually voted yes (The Irish Times, Oslo Process as leverage to become 2010). The World Bank and the In- more integrated and positively viewed ternational Monetary Fund further in the international community. Is- raised three concerns regarding Israel’s rael initiated economic reform that acceptance in light of its treatment of was designed to make it more com- the Palestinian residents of the Occu- petitive in the international markets pied Palestinian Territories, concerns (Shalev, 2004), and has since become which were ignored: the blockade on one of the most globalized countries Gaza, the prevention of investment in in the world (KOF, 2010). In 1994 Area C of the West Bank and the lim- and again in 2000 Israel lost the vote itations on Palestinian foreign trade and was not accepted into the OECD (Jnews, 2010). (Martin, 2010). Additional protest was also made In 2007, the official process of ac- by Switzerland, Norway and Turkey ceptance into the OECD for Israel be- about accepting Israel as an occupy- gan, and no OECD member country ing power, although they all voted 6 | Economy of the Occupation in favor of Israel’s accession in the key points, essential to understanding end (Stein, 2010). the Israeli economy and which thus Israel was officially accepted into provide a partial and misleading pic- the OECD in May 2010, after all ture of the Israeli economy and soci- member states voted in favor of its ety. This is not to say that the reports accession (Lavie, 2010). Along with are not useful. They are, indeed, infor- Israel, Estonia and Slovania were mative, but often underestimate the also accepted into the OECD, bring- true meaning and impact of the deep ing the number of member states divisions within Israel’s stratified so- to 34 (Agencies, 2010). ciety, the political reality of Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The OECD reports on Israel paint the occupation of the Pal- a misleading picture of the Israeli estinian territories and the Syrian Golan, the repres- economy and society. sion of minority groups within Israel (especially The OECD published two reports the Palestinian minority) and the on Israel, reports meant to serve economic meaning of the unfulfilled both as a tool for OECD countries rights of the Palestinian refugees. to judge Israel’s readiness to join the Furthermore, the report did not organization, and also as a list of rec- address the possible repercussions of ommendations for the Israel govern- accepting Israel into the OECD on ment—which policies the OECD the other OECD members, especially recommends that Israel adopt in or- in light of Israel’s controversial poli- der to improve its economy, as well as cies, consistent violations of interna- increase its chances of being accept- tional law and rapidly declining inter- ed into the OECD (OECD, 2010a; national standing. OECD, 2010b). Although the OECD reports rele- These reports paint a detailed pic- gated secondary importance to Israel’s ture of the Israeli socioeconomic real- political situation, the Israeli discourse ity. However, the reports lack several regarding joining the OECD was fully Israel and the OECD | 7 cognisant that Israel’s international law, stood to gain from a vote of confi- standing, which is at constant risk due dence from the international commu- to occupation of the Palestinian ter- nity in the form of OECD member- ritories and violations of international ship (Oren, 2010). "Arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel to OECD Headquarters" Picture by Benjamin Renout/OECD (Paris, 27 May 2010). Some rights reserved: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en. 8 | Economy of the Occupation What is the OECD and What Does Israel Gain from Membership? he Organisation for Eco- as an “exclusive club” for developed de- nomic Cooperation and mocracies. Member states enjoy a cer- TDevelopment is a forum in tain prestige from their membership which 31 of the world’s most economi- in the organization and, importantly, cally advanced countries are members. are recognized as developed and stable The organization presents itself as a democracies by the international com- forum in which “democracies work to- munity. This prestige is sometimes gether to address the economic, social useful for governments and corpora- and environmental challenges of glo- tions seeking to raise capital and sell balization.” It was founded in 1961 bonds (Avriel, 2010a; Ben, 2010). on the foundations of the OEEC, the Although membership in the Or- U.S body for delivering aid to Europe ganization for Economic Cooperation through the Marshall Plan (Even et. and Development (OECD) does not al., 2010). provide money or any special econom- The organization does not wield ic benefits, it is easy to see why the Is- authority or provide finance, but is raeli government attributes great im- used for the member countries as a portance to Israel’s membership. For tool to discuss economic policies and Israel, membership in this prestigious reach agreements for aligning their organization means a victory of le- policies together. gitimacy, and a major setback for the However, the most important char- worldwide movement calling on Israel acteristic of the OECD is that it serves to be held accountable for its crimes Israel and the OECD | 9 against the Palestinian people. Israel’s fers to ignore the crimes committed Tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov by Israel, and reward it instead. This is said that “Israel’s joining the OECD is doing no less than feeding into the ar- of great importance in terms of build- gument of extremists who claim that ing a positive image for the country” only violence can safeguard the rights (Rriedman, 2010). of occupied Palestinians. Only democratic countries are al- Ironically, however, it seems the lowed to join the OECD, and Israel OECD worked harder than Israel to finds it increasingly difficult to portray facilitate the latter’s acceptance in May itself as a democracy, when 35% of the 2010. Israel refused to comply with the OECD’s demand to Israel won a victory of legitimacy by provide statistical data being accepted into the OECD, an act which applies only to the internationally recognised that whitewashes its crimes. parts of Israel, exclud- ing the occupied Syrian population under Israel’s control and Golan, East Jerusalem and the illegal sovereignty are disenfranchised, de- settlements in the West Bank. Yet de- nied their basic human and civil rights spite Israel’s refusal, the OECD Com- and repeatedly attacked by the Israeli mittee on Statistics found ways to ac- army. cept Israel anyway. What appears less obvious is why According to a leaked report: As- the member countries wanted to in- cension of Israel to the Organization: clude Israel in the OECD.