ILO Warns of Financial and Economic Collapse in Palestine

GAZA, Palestine, June 3, 2007 (IPC) - - The International Labor Organization (ILO) described the situation of workers in the occupied territories as "financial and economic collapse" and noted that the rate of per capita's income decreased to 40% of what it was in 1999.

In its new report on the situation of workers in the occupied territories, ILO referred to the effects of the international embargo imposed on the Palestinian government led by Hamas and restrictions imposed by Israel.

The ILO pointed out in its report on the fortieth anniversary of the defeat of the Six Day War, the occupied Arab territories faced further deterioration in the "low living standards and high levels of poverty and unemployment as well as the growing social disintegration and political controversy rages." This crisis had various dimensions "economic, social and political, institutional and humane" because of the occupation, while others resulted from "a series of measures taken after the elections that brought a new government to power in March 2006."

One of the reasons that increased the deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the report referred this crises to the embargo imposed by the international community for the Palestinian Authority, "It behinds a devastating impact on the Palestinian people and the Palestinian economy," and the freezing of the Palestinian tax revenues by the Israeli authorities, contrary to the Oslo agreements which made the Palestinian funds in a monthly deficit reached $ 60 million or about 50% of government revenue.

On the other hand, the restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of persons and goods within the Palestinian territories and abroad led to the "impossibility of a Palestinian economy".

The restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation led the level of per capita income decreased to 40% of what it was in 1999 before the outbreak of the second Intifada.

The rise of the unemployment rate made more than 206 thousand Palestinian workers without jobs or about 24% of the total Palestinian labor. This made seven of ten families under the poverty level, an increase of 26% of what it was the last year, which represented about 2.4 million.

These new complexities and the strict measures imposed by the Israeli occupation, led to a collective punishment, the division of the West Bank.

The report explained that the number of the Israeli checkpoints amounted to 450 barrier. There are also active settlements of the Jewish population in the occupied Arab territories.

The report said that the establishments of settlements continued even in 2006. The data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics said that the number of settlements reached 119 at the end of 2005 a total of 248000 people, an increase of 118 thousand people from what it was in 1995.

ILO reported that the population of 24 Palestinian towns of about 31 thousand inhabitants would find themselves trapped by the Apartheid Wall and the buffer zones imposed by the occupation authorities around the wall.