‎"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.‎