The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development (Expanded Third Edition)

The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development (Expanded Third Edition)

By Sara Roy

In the new expanded edition of The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development, Sara Roy takes her meticulous study of the political economy of the Gaza Strip since the Israeli occupation in 1967 through to the impact, one year after, of Israel’s massive summer 2014 assault known as Operation Protective Edge. In the final edition of Roy’s ground-breaking work, she argues that Gaza’s trajectory over the last 48 years has reconstructed the territory from one that had been economically integrated and deeply dependent upon Israel and strongly tied to the West Bank, to an isolated and disposable enclave cut off from the West Bank as well as Israel and subject to ongoing military attacks. She further shows that these destructive transformations are becoming institutionalized and permanent; shaping a future for the Gaza Strip that is undeniably grim.

Roy clearly demonstrates that Gaza’s debility not only is catastrophic but also deliberate and purposeful. Consequently, Roy argues that the de-development process she formulated and defined 30 years ago has approached its logical endpoint: rendering Gaza unviable.

This definitive edition also contains two essential primary documents describing the planned reconstruction of Gaza in the aftermath of the 2014 war: Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (published here for the first time) and the Materials Monitoring Unit Project Initiation Document

The Author:

Sara Roy (Ph.D. Harvard University) is a senior research scholar at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies specializing in the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Roy began her research in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 1985 with a focus on the economic, social and political development of the Gaza Strip and on U.S. foreign assistance to the region. Since then, she has written extensively on the Palestinian economy, particularly in Gaza, and on Gaza’s de-development, a concept she originated. Dr. Roy is the author of many books and publications, including, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1995, 2001, 2016) and Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector (Princeton University Press, 2011, 2014)

Language: English
ISBN: 9780887283215
2016, paperback, 616 pages, 9.5’ x 6.0”