The economy of this Palestinian village depended on Israel. Then the checkpoint closed
Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza has also wreaked havoc on the Palestinian economy in the West Bank
NILIN, West Bank — Count the rings of the gnarled olive trees dotting Mohammed Mousa’s land in the West Bank village of Nilin: They've been here centuries, far before the Palestinian family's livelihood came to depend on the whims of Israeli occupation.
When Israel established a checkpoint near the Mousas' land a decade ago, the family converted their ancestral farm into a parking lot for Palestinian workers entering Israel.
But the lot has been empty since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, and Israel, fearing more attacks, barred Palestinian workers from the West Bank from entering Israel.
In the fifth month of the war, the family is out of savings, running up debt at supermarkets and selling heirlooms to put food on the table.
“I've sold my mother's gold, my phone, my bicycle,” Mousa said. “There's nothing more to sell.”
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, unleashed an unimaginable humanitarian crisis and decimated the strip’s economy. But Israel's near-complete severance of economic ties with the West Bank also has had serious repercussions for Palestinians there.
Economists and Palestinian officials say the territory faces a dire economic crisis that also weakens the Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous pockets in the West Bank. Under interim peace deals from a generation ago, the self-rule government was meant to expand and eventually run a future Palestinian state.
The fallout from Israel's decision is felt keenly in Nilin. Before October, over 10,000 Palestinian workers crossed the checkpoint there daily, heading to Israeli construction
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