Romney faces Palestinian criticism for Jerusalem remarks.

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U.S republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his tour.

    U.S republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney incurred huge criticism from  Palestinian leaders today, when he suggested here that the Israeli economy had outpaced the economy of the Palestinian territories in part because of advantages of “culture.”

Palestinians said that Romney had ignored the long-running Israeli restrictions on crossings from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which they say are an enormous drag on trade. The Romney campaign disputed media accounts of Romney’s remarks.

  Romney, who left Israel on Monday for Poland, had said at a breakfast fundraiser that he had pondered the reasons for Israel’s huge economic advantage over the neighboring territories.

“As you come here and you see the [Gross Domestic Product] per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” Romney said.

In fact, the difference is far more stark than that. According to the CIA World Factbook, Israel’s GDP per capita is actually $31,400. The figure for the Palestinian territories, which dates back to 2008, was $2,900.

Romney said he had studied a book called “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations,” searching for an answer about why two neighboring places--the U.S. and Mexico, for instance, or Israel and the Palestinian areas--could have such disparate prosperity.

“Culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference,” Romney said, repeating the conclusion he drew from that book, by David Landes. “And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things.”

Romney also said he recognized “hand of providence in selecting this place.”

Romney did not mention that Israel controls crossings to both Palestinian areas. Israel has imposed a blockade on its boundary with Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas took over there in 2007. In the West Bank, Israel continues to restrict Palestinian trade and movement.

The Associated Press reported Monday that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have said repeatedly that the Palestinian economy can only grow if Israel lifts those restrictions.

“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the Associated Press. Palestine is not officially a country, which means it lacks other kinds of legal powers that allow nations to control their own economies.

 Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul on Monday disputed reports of Romney’s comments. “We’ve asked for a correction for his remarks being grossly mischaracterized,” Saul said.

Saul did not elaborate about the campaign’s complaints.

 The Romney campaign did release a transcript of that section of Romney’s remarks: they show Romney considering two published theories that could account for disparate prosperity among two neighboring countries. One, from Jared Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs and Steel,” asserts that a people’s fate is determined by the natural resources in their land.