Shemittah and the Palestinian Economy

This article from the Jordan Times (hat tip: Rabbi Dr. Shalom Berger) provides some wonderful insight into the impact of shemittah on the Palestinian economy and also how they view internal Jewish debate regarding various issues. I was also amazed – and pleasantly surprised – at the balanced way that the article portrays this politically-charged halakhic issue. The issue of ‘supporting terrorism’ is a large part of the internal Israeli dialogue on the halakhic issue, and this could have been inverted to (perhaps justifiably, perhaps unjustifiably) suggest that Rabbis who promote heter mechirah do so because they wish to minimize benefits to ‘terrorist’ Palestinian homesteaders.