Rentier Reflections

                             What is a rentier economy?

A rentier economy is a system where the primary source of wealth and income is derived from the ownership and control of scarce assets—such as land, natural resources, or intellectual property—rather than from productive activities like manufacturing or innovation. In this model, "rentiers" extract economic rent (unearned income) by charging others for the use of assets they control. 

Key Characteristics

• Asset Ownership vs. Production: Income is gained through "having" rather than "doing". Typical assets include real estate, mineral rights, patents, and digital platforms.
• Monopoly Power: Rentiers often hold monopoly or oligopoly power, allowing them to charge prices far above the cost of production because users are "captive" and have few alternatives.
• External Revenue Dependence: In the context of a rentier state, the government derives a substantial portion of its national revenue from external clients (e.g., selling oil or natural gas) rather than from taxing its domestic productive sector.
• Mentality Shift: It breaks the traditional work-reward nexus; wealth is seen as a result of situation or chance rather than risk-taking or labor. 

Modern Manifestations

• Digital Platforms: Companies like Amazon or Apple act as digital rentiers by controlling "walled gardens" where they charge "taxes" (fees) for access to their marketplaces or app stores.
• Financialization: A significant portion of corporate profits now comes from financial services (interest, fees, and penalties) rather than selling physical goods. For example, by 2026, many automakers have long generated more profit from their credit and loan arms than from manufacturing cars.
• Intellectual Property (IP): Aggressive use of patents and copyrights in pharmaceuticals and tech allows firms to extract rents by preventing others from using or producing similar technologies. 

Economic and Social Impact

• Stagnation: Rentierism can stifle innovation, as companies prefer extracting rent from existing assets over investing in new, risky research and development.
• Inequality: Wealth tends to concentrate in the hands of the few asset owners, widening the gap between them and those who rely on wages.
• Political Fragility: Rentier states often lack accountability because the government does not rely on citizens for taxes, which can lead to authoritarianism and the "resource curse". 

          What is the opposite of a rentier economy?

The opposite of a rentier economy is a productive economy (often historically referred to as industrial capitalism). While a rentier economy thrives on the extraction of "unearned income" from existing assets, a productive economy generates wealth through the creation of new goods and services. 

Key Differences

Feature	Rentier Economy	Productive Economy
Primary Goal	Extraction of economic rent	Industrial capital formation
Wealth Source	Ownership (land, patents, debt)	Production (labor, manufacturing)
Capital Usage	Passive collection/speculation	Active re-investment into competition
Market Dynamic	Monopoly or "walled gardens"	Competition through efficiency

Core Models of a Productive Economy 

• Industrial Capitalism: Historically, economists like Adam Smith and Karl Marx saw industrial capitalism as a revolutionary force intended to clear away the "unproductive" legacy of feudal landlords and monopolists. It relies on cutting costs and increasing efficiency to win markets.
• Knowledge/Innovation Economy: In this model, growth is driven by the continuous creation and adoption of new technologies and ideas rather than just controlling them via patents.
• Investment-Based Profit-Making: This system transforms social relations by creating market-based autonomy and encouraging sustained, decentralized investments across the wider economy. 

Strategic Shifts to Counter Rentierism

Many 2026 economic theories suggest moving away from rentierism involves specific structural reforms: 

• Taxing "Rents" instead of Labor: Historical and modern proponents suggest taxing land values and natural resource extractions (rents) while reducing taxes on labor and industry to incentivize productive work.
• De-commodification: Treating basic assets like housing or essential infrastructure as public utilities or universal rights rather than speculative commodities.
• Anti-Monopoly Regulation: Breaking up digital platforms and strict intellectual property reforms to prevent companies from becoming "gatekeepers" that charge others for market access. 

Ultra-orthodox Jews view of Zionism

 

Ultra-orthodox Jews view of Zionism

Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews generally view Zionism as a secular nationalist movement that conflicts with traditional religious beliefs regarding Jewish exile and divine redemption. While views vary by sect, their perspective is typically categorized into three main camps: 

1. Hardline Anti-Zionism (Extremist Groups)

Small but vocal groups like Neturei Karta and the Satmar Hasidic sect completely reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel. 

• Theological Basis: They cite the "Three Oaths" from the Talmud, which they interpret as a divine decree that Jews must not return to the Land of Israel by force or rebel against other nations until the Messiah arrives.
• Actions: Members of these groups often refuse Israeli citizenship, do not vote, and occasionally participate in pro-Palestinian protests. 

2. Pragmatic Non-Zionism (Mainstream Haredim)

Most Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel belong to this camp. They do not view the modern state as having any religious significance or being the "beginning of the redemption". 

• Political Participation: Parties like United Torah Judaism (UTJ) participate in the Knesset primarily to secure funding for their schools and ensure their community is exempt from military service.
• Instrumental View: They view the state as a "service provider" or a necessary secular authority similar to any foreign government under which Jews have lived in exile. 

3. Religious Zionism (The Opposite Pole)

It is important to distinguish Haredim from Religious Zionists (often identified by "knitted yarmulkes"). Unlike the Ultra-Orthodox, Religious Zionists believe the State of Israel is a central part of the divine plan for messianic redemption. 

Key Tensions in 2025

• Military Draft: A major point of contention in 2025 remains the legal struggle over drafting Ultra-Orthodox men into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Haredi leaders view military service as a threat to their religious lifestyle and a "spiritual destruction" of their youth.
• Shift in Sentiment: Since the October 7, 2023, attacks, some surveys have indicated a slight increase in Haredi support for national contribution and military volunteering, though the leadership remains staunchly against mandatory conscription. 

Christmas is not a Western story – it is a Palestinian one

 

Christmas is not a Western story – it is a Palestinian one

Christmas is a story of empire, injustice and the vulnerability of ordinary people caught in its path.
By Rev Dr Munther Isaac, A Palestinian pastor and theologian.

Every December, much of the Christian world enters a familiar cycle of celebration: carols, lights, decorated trees, consumer frenzy and the warm imagery of a snowy night. In the United States and Europe, public discourse often speaks of “Western Christian values”, or even the vague notion of “Judeo-Christian civilisation”. These phrases have become so common that many assume, almost automatically, that Christianity is inherently a Western religion — an expression of European culture, history and identity.

It is not.

is, and has always been, a West Asian / Middle Eastern religion. Its geography, culture, worldview and founding stories are rooted in this land — among peoples, languages and social structures that look far more like those in today’s Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan than anything imagined in Europe. Even Judaism, invoked in the term “Judeo-Christian values”, is itself a thoroughly Middle Eastern phenomenon. The West received Christianity — it certainly did not give birth to it.

And perhaps nothing reveals the distance between Christianity’s origins and its contemporary Western expression more starkly than Christmas — the birth story of a Palestinian Jew, a child of this land who was born long before modern borders and identities emerged.

What the West made of Christmas

In the West, Christmas is a cultural marketplace. It is commercialised, romanticised and wrapped in layers of sentimentality. Lavish gift-giving overshadows any concern for the poor. The season has become a performance of abundance, nostalgia, and consumerism — a holiday stripped of its theological and moral core.

Even the familiar lines of the Christmas song Silent Night obscure the true nature of the story: Jesus was not born into serenity but into upheaval.

He was born under military occupation, to a family displaced by an imperial decree, in a region living under the shadow of violence. The holy family were forced to flee as refugees because the infants of Bethlehem, according to the Gospel narrative, were massacred by a fearful tyrant determined to preserve his reign. Sound familiar?

Indeed, Christmas is a story of empire, injustice and the vulnerability of ordinary people caught in its path.

Bethlehem: Imagination vs reality

For many in the West, Bethlehem – the birthplace of Jesus – is a place of imagination — a postcard from antiquity, frozen in time. The “little town” is remembered as a quaint village from scripture rather than a living, breathing city with actual people, with a distinct history and culture.

Bethlehem today is surrounded by walls and checkpoints built by an occupier. Its residents live under a system of apartheid and fragmentation. Many feel cut off, not only from Jerusalem – which the occupier does not allow them to visit – but also from the global Christian imagination that venerates Bethlehem’s past while often ignoring its present.

This sentiment also explains why so many in the West, while celebrating Christmas, care little about the Christians of Bethlehem. Even worse, many embrace theologies and political attitudes that erase or dismiss our presence entirely in order to support Israel, the empire of today.

In these frameworks, ancient Bethlehem is cherished as a sacred idea, but modern Bethlehem — with its Palestinian Christians suffering and struggling to survive — is an inconvenient reality that needs to be ignored.

This disconnect matters. When Western Christians forget that Bethlehem is real, they disconnect from their spiritual roots. And when they forget that Bethlehem is real, they also forget that the story of Christmas is real.

They forget that it unfolded among a people who lived under empire, who faced displacement, who longed for justice, and who believed that God was not distant but among them.

What Christmas means for Bethlehem

So what does Christmas look like when told from the perspective of the people who still live where it all began — the Palestinian Christians? What meaning does it hold for a tiny community that has preserved its faith for two millennia?

At its heart, Christmas is the story of the solidarity of God.

It is the story of God who does not rule from afar, but is present among the people and takes the side of those on the margins. The incarnation — the belief that God took on flesh — is not a metaphysical abstraction. It is a radical statement about where God chooses to dwell: in vulnerability, in poverty, among the occupied, among those with no power except the power of hope.

In the Bethlehem story, God identifies not with emperors but with those suffering under empire — its victims. God comes not as a warrior but as an infant. God is present not in a palace but in a manger. This is divine solidarity in its most striking form: God joins the most vulnerable part of humanity.

Christmas, then, is the proclamation of a God who confronts the logic of empire.

For Palestinians today, this is not merely theology — it is lived experience. When we read the Christmas story, we recognise our own world: the census that forced Mary and Joseph to travel resembles the permits, checkpoints and bureaucratic controls that shape our daily lives today. The holy family’s flight resonates with the millions of refugees who have fled wars across our region. Herod’s violence echoes in the violence we see around us.

Christmas is a Palestinian story par excellence.

A message to the world

Bethlehem celebrates Christmas for the first time after two years without public festivities. It was painful yet necessary for us to cancel our celebrations; we had no choice.

A genocide was unfolding in Gaza, and as people who still live in the homeland of Christmas, we could not pretend otherwise. We could not celebrate the birth of Jesus while children his age were being pulled dead from the rubble.

Celebrating this season does not mean the war, the genocide, or the structures of apartheid have ended. People are still being killed. We are still besieged.

Instead, our celebration is an act of resilience — a declaration that we are still here, that Bethlehem remains the capital of Christmas, and that the story this town tells must continue.

At a time when Western political discourse increasingly weaponises Christianity as a marker of cultural identity — often excluding the very people among whom Christianity was born — it is vital to return to the roots of this story.

This Christmas, our invitation to the global church — and to Western Christians in particular — is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live. If the Christian world is to honour the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem — not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity and peace.

To remember Bethlehem is to remember that God stands with the oppressed — and that the followers of Jesus are called to do the same.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.   

Rev Dr Munther Isaac is a Palestinian pastor and theologian. He pastors Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ramallah and is director of the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice. 

Is Israel restricting MSF in Gaza?

 Is Israel restricting MSF in Gaza?

Yes, Israel is imposing significant restrictions on the operations of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other aid organizations in Gaza. These restrictions include new registration rules and impediments to bringing essential supplies into the territory. 

Current Restrictions

• Aid Entry Limitations: MSF reports that Israeli authorities continue to impose significant restrictions on the entry of vital aid, especially medical equipment, shelter, hygiene items, and spare parts for critical infrastructure.
• "Dual-Use" Items: The flow of aid is limited by Israel's opaque list of "dual-use" items, which includes essential equipment like generators, water desalination stations, and communication gear that aid groups struggle to get approved and transported into Gaza.
• Security Situation and Suspensions: Due to intensified Israeli military operations and the resulting security risks for staff and patients, MSF has been forced to suspend activities in certain areas, including Gaza City. MSF clinics were reportedly encircled by Israeli forces.
• Access to Healthcare: Ongoing military operations in areas with major hospitals have reduced safe access to health care for the population. 

New Rules Threaten Future Operations 

MSF has issued stark warnings that new Israeli registration rules for international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) could force them to stop operating in Gaza and the West Bank entirely starting January 1, 2026. 

• Revocation of Registration: The new requirements threaten to revoke the legal status of organizations like MSF if they do not meet certain criteria, potentially barring them from providing essential services.
• Catastrophic Consequences: MSF warns that losing access for independent humanitarian organizations would be a "disaster for Palestinians," who are almost entirely reliant on aid for survival, given the widespread destruction of Gaza's health system. 

MSF continues to seek constructive engagement with Israeli authorities to maintain and expand its life-saving activities, which currently support nearly half a million people in Gaza through hospitals, field hospitals, and health centers.