Shir Hever, in this week's Newsweek calculates the Economics of Occupation and comes up with some staggering figures.
Because Israel has never released all the necessary data, we've taken the numbers available from various Israeli research studies, extrapolated them, and adjusted the results for interest and inflation. In arriving at a very conservative estimate, we made sure to count only the extra costs of controlling the occupied territories, not the costs of basic-services that settlers would receive if they lived in Israel proper, or the buildup of the state's military.
TOTAL INCOME FROM THE OCCUPATION: $8.5 billion
TOTAL SETTLEMENT SUBSIDIES: $34.3 billion
TOTAL SECURITY COSTS: $62.7 billion
ANNUAL COST (IN 2010 DOLLARS): $6.3 billion
BUDGET PER NONSETTLER (AS OF 2010): $11,087
BUDGET PER SETTLER (AS OF 2010): $22,522
TOTAL NET COST: $88.5 billion
ANNUAL COST (IN 2010 DOLLARS): $6.3 billion
While the US tax-payer is funding the bulk of this, the Palestinians are paying an even higher price for the expansion of these illegal racist colonies - the denial of their most basic human rights which the Quartet headed by the US Administration are dedicated to vetoing in the UN today.
More photos of the illegal Israeli Colonies in Palestine
