"Sara Roy's excellent book should be required reading for all policy makers in countries which have pledged funds for the Palestinian authority and World Bank officials and experts dealing with Palestinian development." Middle East International "Roy argues forcefully that Israeli policy contributed to Gaza's misery by expropriating resources, creating an economy of dependency, and prohibiting the emergence of institutions that might have assisted in the...
"Sara Roy's excellent book should be required reading for all policy makers in countries which have pledged funds for the Palestinian authority and World Bank officials and experts dealing with Palestinian development." Middle East International "Roy argues forcefully that Israeli policy contributed to Gaza's misery by expropriating resources, creating an economy of dependency, and prohibiting the emergence of institutions that might have assisted in the development process." Foreign Affairs "Sara Roy's pioneering research gives the lie to pretensions that Gaza's conditions suddenly arose out of thin air." Meron Benvenisti Former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Called "the forgotten man of the Middle East", "the stepchild of the West Bank", and "the black hole of the Arab world" Gaza Strip consistently has been neglected by Middle East scholars and treated as an appendage of the much larger West Bank. Yet, Gaza has remained a critical part of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: it was where the All-Palestine Government was established in 1948, where the intifada began in 1987, and where limited self-rule for the Palestinians began in 1994. With the signing and implementation of the Gaza-Jericho Accord, the need to understand Gaza is greater than ever before. 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 a 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. About the Author: Sara Roy received her doctorate from Harvard University, where she is a research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Roy's current research examines the social and economic sectors of the Palestinian Islamic movement for which she was awarded a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Roy also has served as a consultant to international organizations, the U.S. government, human rights organizations, and private business groups working in the Middle East.