ABSTRACT
Both Israel and the West Bank/Gaza area were parts of Mandatory Palestine before 1948. While Israel, with well over three-quarters of the area, has achieved a relatively developed status, the residual area has, despite a significant increase in per capita consumption under the first half of the Israel occupation, remained economically underdeveloped. Following Israeli occupation, there was initially a further retreat in 1967 in the construction sector of both areas. The total of West Bank and Gaza Strip (WB/GS) labor in construction, both in Israel and the WB/GS areas rose rapidly between 1968 and 1974. The productivity of the WB/GS construction sector, in terms of area built per worker, increased very rapidly between 1968 and 1979. The non-residential and public sectors of building in the WB/GS lag behind residential and private building. While construction did increase rapidly for the first decade of Israeli occupation, there are many barriers to development caused by the occupation.
