Cost of Occupation to Israeli Society

Notes from the Alternative Information Center's podcast:

The total cost of the Occupation, since 1967, has been $100 billion.

This sounds small, but in fact the first 20 years of occupation were actually profitable for Israel.

Today, there is a 6% increase in cost of occupation, per year. This is compared to the growth of the overall Israeli budget, which is only about 2% per year. The cost of the occupation is growing, even relative to the Israeli budget, and at the expense of education, health, and welfare spending.

As a result, Israel is now the second most unequal country in the developed world, after only the US. Inequality in Israel has increased faster than any other developed country. The poverty rate is higher than it ever has been.

The occupation currently costs $7 billion a year, 9 percent of the total Israeli budget. This figure does not including the non-occupation defense budget.

The occupation was already morally unsustainable, but this provides further proof that it is also financially impossible to maintain.