Question of the Week: What has to be done to ensure that the lives of people living in the Gaza Strip will not get worse after the planned unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops?

Date: 03/02/05

Shimon Peres is vice-prime minister of Israel and chairman of the Labour Party. Maher al-Masri is minister of national economy of the Palestinian Authority. We asked them:

What has to be done to ensure that the lives of people living in the Gaza Strip will not get worse after the planned unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops?

Shimon Peres: We have to create an immediate sense that peace is not just a promise, but peace that is an immediate change in peoples' lives. We need an act of economic democracy in Gaza. Political democracy is one thing, but economic democracyis another.

It is more tangible. In concrete terms, it means that there should be more employment, less poverty and more food.

Maher al-Masri: What we are concerned about for Gaza is that the withdrawal should be accompanied by the opening of borders and the ability of our workers to work in Gaza and in Israel. It is important that people and goods can move freely; only this facilitation would allow our economy to take off. We need openness. Israel has to ensure it, by removing the closed regime. An international donor effort is also necessary to pump life into the economy.

Question answered by Shimon Peres, Vice-Prime Minister of Israel and chairman of the Labour Party, and Maher al-Masri, minister of national economy of the Palestinian Authority.