The Failure of Big Business : On the Socio-Economic Reality of the Middle East Peace Process

This article explores the nature and impact of business co-operation between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. It argues that co-operation and increasing socio-economic inequality are linked and have an impact on the peace process. Hence, the second Intifada is not only the result of the abortive political talks at Camp David in 2000, but also, and more crucially, the consequence of growing domestic and regional inequality. The uprising needs to be understood as a manifestation of the domestic and socio-economic failure of the Middle East peace process, which always remained an elitist phenomenon and alienated large segments of Palestinian society owing to the growing gap between rich and poor