Minister of the Economy Nir Barkat participated in the Arutz Sheva Jerusalem Conference in NYC on Sunday.
Barkat expressed his wish to lower the cost of living in Israel. "Israel has an island economy...Many products can't even get in here and the ones that can are sold at a higher price by the monopolies and cartels just because they can," he pointed out. "Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that we have to improve the cost of living," he added. "We're opening up the market," he continued. "We're enabling people to buy cheap in Europe and bring goods to Israel."
Asked what he thought about the PA economy's affect on the Israeli market, Barkat produced some surprising numbers. "The GDP in Israel is around $55,000," he said. Arab Israelis make right around $40,000. The 120,000 Palestinians who cross the border fence every day to work in Israel make around $16,000. The ones who work in Area C under Israeli control make around $11,000, in areas A and B it's around $7,000 and Gazans make $3,000 a year."
"The more the Palestinians cooperate with the Jewish State, the better off they are," he stated. "We want to help them do so in a smart way. Today you have about 40,000 Palestinians and almost 20,000 Israelis working in the industrial zones in Area C. I want to scale that 10 times in the next 15-20 years," promised Barkat.
"I want to enable more Palestinians to [work] in these industrial zones and triple their salaries because eventually, if it's good for them, it's good for us," he argued.