It is positive, indeed, that the focus at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa, held in Jordan, was on mobilizing to generate $4 billion worth of investments for the occupied Palestinian territories to help fight unemployment by creating much-needed jobs.

Such an approach has the strong support of a large group of Palestinian and Israeli business people, who call themselves Breaking the Impasse, who are committed to peace via economic development and are acting as a lobby to promote it. US Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted as saying that such investment could greatly reduce Palestinian unemployment, from almost 21% to 8%. It would also consolidate the building of the future Palestinian state.

The approach represents one of the trilateral dimensions espoused by Kerry to relaunch the peace process, the other two being the political and security dimensions. Yet as expressed by the Palestinian leadership, there remains legitimate fear among the Palestinians, due to past experience and current Israeli policies, that this economic dimension, as much as it is important, could at the end of the day replace the vital political one.

The amelioration of life under occupation will not, however, change Palestinians' feeling of national humiliation. This feeling is reinforced by daily life events and structural exploitation, as is always the case for people under occupation. It is equally important to underline that economic development will always be constrained and hindered by the occupation itself, its interests and its policies.