Economy & Aid
Paltel and APIC grew their profits as the Authority ran dry
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
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Palestine's biggest listed companies have filed their half-year accounts, and they read nothing like the government's.
The Palestine Telecommunications Company reported net income of 30.03 million Jordanian dinars for the six months to 30 June, against 21.48 million in the same period of 2025. Sales rose to 168.14 million dinars from 131.8 million.
The Arab Palestinian Investment Company reported revenues of $688.2 million, a 15 percent rise on the same period last year, with EBITDA up 55 percent to $44 million and operating profit up 53 percent to $31 million.
The Palestine Exchange itself, which is a listed company, reported a half-year profit of $210,171.
$5.15 billion
Market value of the Palestine Exchange's listed companies at the end of the first half of 2026 — 47 companies across banking, investment, services, insurance and industry
The index and the vault#
The Al-Quds index closed at 672.43 points on Tuesday, up 0.72 percent — 4.80 points — on turnover of $648,978 across 329,756 shares in 164 deals, according to the exchange's session report. That is a market that is functioning and thinly traded at the same time.
Both facts belong beside the number the New York Times published this week: roughly $5.7 billion in physical shekels sitting in West Bank bank vaults because Israel permits Palestinian banks to move only about $1.5 billion a quarter into the Israeli system.
Palestinian companies can earn. Palestinian banks cannot always move what they hold. Those are different constraints and they are being felt at once.
Reading the two ledgers together#
Nothing in the corporate results contradicts the fiscal crisis, and it would be a mistake to read them as good news about the economy as a whole.
Paltel and APIC are regional businesses. APIC's revenue is earned across several Arab markets, and a telecoms operator collects from subscribers rather than from a treasury. Neither depends on the clearance revenue Israel is withholding, which is exactly why they can grow in a year when the Palestinian Authority is halving the salaries of 140,000 public employees.
The listed sector also distributed $160 million to shareholders in 2026, at a moment when a traffic officer's monthly pay is about $750.
Market levels and company results are facts, and this paper reports them as facts and never as advice. The fact worth keeping is the divergence itself: the part of the Palestinian economy that is plugged into the region is growing, and the part that depends on money Israel collects at the border is running out.
