How much has the intifada cost?

jerusalem (ap) | The Israeli economy has lost $12 billion and the Palestinian economy $4.5 billion as a result of the past four years of fighting, an Israeli economist said Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Danny Singerman, chief economist at the research firm Business Data Israel, said the Palestinian uprising against Israel — known as the intifada — cut the Palestinian gross domestic product by about 30 percent and the Israeli GDP by some 10 percent.

More than 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis have been killed in the violence, which has included Palestinian attacks in Israeli towns and cities, and intensive Israeli military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

As a result of the violence, Singerman said, foreign investment in Israel has fallen and tourists have stayed away. The Palestinians — hard hit by Israeli military closures — have seen almost all economic activity drop off sharply.

"We calculated that without the intifada, Israel's per capita GDP would have reached $18,500 per year instead of the $16,700 where it now stands," Singerman said. "As for the Palestinians, we think GDP could have reached $1,800 per year instead of the current rate of about $1,100."

Singerman said that, because of the smaller size of the Palestinian economy, the damage to Palestinians was three times as great as for Israelis.

Singerman said his research relied primarily on data assembled by the Bank of Israel, the Israeli treasury and the World Bank.