This article was originally published by Maan News and is republished with permission.

Palestinian economists and businessmen from the Hebron district of the southern West Bank believe that the opening of the Tarqumiya crossing, located on the western edge of the West Bank, would represents "the last nail in the coffin for the Palestinian economy."

They depicted the enlarged Tarqumiya crossing as being a "Karni 2," referring to the main crossing point for exports and imports between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

The Israeli authorities are expected to begin operating the new Tarqumiya crossing from the beginning of September 2007, and it will be used for goods and people traveling between the southern West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Several Palestinian industrial and commercial facilities are expected to stop their work as a result of the high fees and the long wait at that crossing. Raw materials will not easily reach the Palestinian factories, the businessmen predict. This threatens to increase unemployment.

"The opening of the Tarqumiya crossing will destroy the Palestinian economy in general, and the economy of Hebron district in particular," said the director of the chamber of commerce in Hebron, Maher Haymouni.

He told our Hebron correspondent: "In light of the absence of natural resources in the Palestinian territories, the private sector has become the only provider of jobs. 95% of the Palestine-based facilities belong to the private sector. 33% of these facilities are in Hebron district."