Other Barriers between Israel and Palestine

Another example of the losses created when there are barriers to trade between two countries comes from this source.

Israeli Mobsters Smuggling in Meat from Palestinian Areas
By Haaretz Service

Israeli underworld figures have begun smuggling large quantities of livestock, eggs, and meat packed in "black market slaughterhouses" from Palestinian areas for sale within Israel, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

Over the past year, ministry officials intercepted and foiled attempts to smuggle thousands of sheep, goats, and cattle into Israel, as well as large quantities of eggs, fish and meat slaughtered in unsupervised plants set up near the Green Line border with the West Bank.

Link via Tom Hanna

As Tom notes, freeing up trade in food between Palestine and Israel would make residents of both countries better off: Israeli consumers would be able to pay lower prices, and Palestinian producers would receive higher prices. And the economics of comparative advantage demonstrates very clearly that these gains outweigh whatever losses would be felt by Israeli food producers and Palestinian food consumers.

If meat is being used to smuggle bombs and weapons, that is a different story.