Israel Economy
Updated 2024-04-03
2024-03-08 Praising El Al in Israel’s current situation Friends, role makers, consumers, lend me your ears. I come not to bury El Al, but to praise it. El Al just announced that its profit rose 370% in the last quarter of 2023. This translates into almost $40 million. I’m not quite sure where El Al’s projections were coming from, as, with a paucity of airlines flying to Israel, El Al knew it would grab a sizable market share. https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/praising-el-al-in-israel-s-current-situation/ar-BB1jzM8y?
2024-02-07 Israeli wineries near Lebanon fear harvest failure as war with Hezbollah looms Ongoing cross-border attacks cause manpower shortage, challenges working in fields; Dalton Winery owner says vine pruning must be done by March or crop will be ruined https://www.timesofisrael.com/wineries-near-lebanon-fear-harvest-failure-as-war-with-hezbollah-looms/
2023-12-24 Israelis to have insurmountable debt, Netanyahu must quit now – MK I srael is facing an impending economic catastrophe that could burden the state with insurmountable debt for generations to come, Knesset State Control Committee chairman MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) said, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately resign from power with our without elections.
Expressing concern over the state budget, Levy accused it of “looting” funds for unnecessary purposes, and that this was not exclusive to all the money earmarked for Israel’s haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector. He stressed the importance of equal opportunities in education and criticized the inclusion of unnecessary expenditures, such as allocating over NIS 600 million for promoting Jewish identity.
Levy predicted that the 2024 budget will worsen Israel’s economic situation, burdening future generations with insurmountable debts. He warned that Israel’s GDP will decrease, the deficit will soar, and external debt will continue to rise. The lawmaker suggested closing at least 10 ministries that he deemed to be redundant, especially during times of war when every shekel should be directed towards the war with Hamas. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israelis-to-have-insurmountable-debt-netanyahu-must-quit-now-mk/ar-AA1lYaLr
2023-12-23 Israeli Economy Reels From Gaza Conflict as Labor Pool Shrinks AMALLAH, West Bank—Nir Yanushevsky heads a real estate and construction firm north of Tel Aviv that before the war had about 1,000 employees. But Israel’s decision to suspend Palestinian work permits after the Oct. 7 attacks has upended his business. “You wake up one morning and one-third of your workers are gone,” he said.
So is Mustafa Irzikat’s job. The father of four had crossed into Israel from the West Bank to work in construction for more than 16 years, but now he is living off loans from friends. “Without them, I wouldn’t be able to pay for food for one day.” Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip is transforming its economy and that of the West Bank. The decision to bar more than 100,000 Palestinian workers from entering Israel has shrunk the pool of low-cost labor in a country of roughly nine million people that is known for relatively high wages and strict immigration laws that make it harder for non-Jews to live in Israel.
At the same time, the Israeli military has called up roughly 400,000 reservists and officials estimate that 250,000 Israelis have been relocated at least temporarily from their homes, particularly from areas seen as potentially vulnerable to attack, preventing many from going to work.
About 20% of Israeli employees aren’t working due to military duty or relocation, according to Israel’s Ministry for Economy and Industry, which estimated that the cost to the economy due to the absence of Israeli workers had reached around 13 billion shekels, or roughly $3.6 billion, by mid-November. The Israel Federation of Small Business Organizations and the Tel Aviv-based Macro Center for Political Economics jointly forecast that the war would directly contribute to the closure of some 30,000 small- and medium-size businesses in various sectors. The economy’s outlook is dimming as a result.
The suspension of work permits, restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians and import limits have all hurt the West Bank’s economy as well. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that the war has resulted in a 37% decline in production—amounting to about $500 million a month—in the territory. Over a quarter of businesses in the West Bank were partially or fully closed in November due to the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-economy-reels-from-gaza-conflict-as-labor-pool-shrinks/ar-AA1lVoTA
2023-11-09 Wars in Ukraine and Gaza; preferences in economic policies – KPFA Behind the News Anatol Lieven on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the global standing of US power • Ilyana Kuziemko and Suresh Naidu, co-authors of this paper, on class differences in economic policy preferences (predistributionist vs. redistributionist) https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-november-9-2023/
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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