A recent report by the Palestine Trade Center in city of Ramallah in the West Bank revealed that trade between the Palestinian Authority and Israel could reach an estimated $7 billion.
Overall Israeli exports to the Palestinian Authority, including petroleum and telephone services, were worth $2.5b in 2005, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Just the export of goods by Palestinians from Israel in 2005, excluding diamonds, reached some $1.8 billion, disclosed Saad Khatib, the Palestine Trade Center trade policy adviser.
Despite hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the second largest country to which Israel exported goods to in 2005 was the Palestinian territories, after the United States.
The Center also revealed that some $12 billion in annual trade could be generated between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the Palestinian Authority and, through it, the Arab Free Trade Area, for the export of products and services ranging from cell phone technology to packaged foods.
Khatib explained that economic relations between Israel and Palestine had the potential of being extremely financially beneficial to both parties, and that such ties should continue in the interest of both groups.
He added that if relations between Israel and the Palestinians were to become "friendly" rather then "hostile," the value of Israeli exports to the Palestinians could grow to $7 billion annually within the next five to 10 years.
Additionally, that number could be increased by another $5 billion within that same time frame because Israel could export its products duty-free to the Arab Free Trade Area countries such as Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunis, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania and Somalia, with the help of the Palestinians.
Furthermore, economic ties between Israel and the Palestinians could generate $17 billion annually within the next five to 10 years if one calculates the benefits of a potential joint tourism industry between the two neighbors.
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