UN Blames Israel for Palestinian De-development

RAMALLAH, West Bank, February 9, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel's separation wall and its network of checkpoints and roadblocks across the occupied West Bank have led to a "de-development" of the Palestinian economy, a report by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator (UNSCO) said on Thursday, February 9.

Francine Pickup, author of the report, said poverty and unemployment in the West Bank were expected to increase because of denying Palestinian workers access into Israeli markets, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Our research highlights the high level of dependence in the West Bank on the Israeli market both for goods and work," she told a press conference.

"It's difficult to see how the northern West Bank economy can be viable (and) separate from the Israeli economy. It is likely that unemployment and poverty will increase as there is no alternative to the markets in Israel."

Thousands of Palestinian workers lost their jobs in the northern West Bank, where the bulk of the rural population is based, after they were denied entry into Israeli markets on security grounds.

The UN report said that a third of the rural population in the West Bank had lost jobs in Israel because of closures and the separation barrier.

Earlier this week, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to "separate from most of the Palestinian population that lives in the West Bank."

Israel claims the 700km-long separation wall in the West Bank is only meant to stop attacks while Palestinians maintain it denies them a viable state and serves to inflict collective punishment on them.

The International Court of Justice has asked Israel to tear down the barrier, which resulted in the confiscation of 11,4000 dunums (2,850 acres - 1,140 hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land, and compensate affected Palestinians.

Hardest-hit

The UN report said that Israel's separation barrier has been instrumental in reducing the number of Palestinians crossing back and forward into Israel for work.

Pickup said that the West Bank city of Jenin has been the hardest-hit by the Israeli closures and the barrier.

"Jenin is a district that relies heavily on work in Israel. Prior to September 2000 42 percent of the rural working population was employed in Israel. Now it is six percent," she said.

The report noted that the main northern West Bank city of Nablus, traditionally the economic capital of the territory, had suffered particularly badly from the Israeli closures, with businesses relocating to the central city of Ramallah.

"The economic center there has died," Pickup said.

"Many businesses have got up and moved to Ramallah. Laborers from the northern West Bank have moved to Ramallah ... it brings great economic inequality within the West Bank."

The UN report detailed how traders in the northern West Bank, who used to drive their products to nearby Arab Israeli towns such as Umm al-Fahm in a matter of minutes, now had to take their products on a seven-hour round trip via the main Qalandiya checkpoint close to Ramallah.

In June 2004, Palestinian businessmen accused Israel of attempting to paralyze the already-shattered Palestinian economy by closing the main commercial crossing into Gaza Strip.

Beatings, shootings, harassment, humiliation in front of children and wives and life-threatening delays are but a few examples of the appalling conditions Palestinians suffer at Israeli checkpoints, The Washington Post said on November 29.

The UNSCO was established in June 1994 following the signing of the Oslo Accord.

It aims to strengthen UN inter-agency cooperation in order to ensure "an adequate response to the needs of the Palestinian people and to mobilize financial, technical, economic and other assistance."

More Deaths

In another development, Israel stepped up its aggressions in the occupied Palestinian territories, killing three Palestinians on Thursday.

Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers during a pre-dawn attack at the Erez crossing between northern Gaza and southern Israel, according to AFP.

In a separate incident, a 23-year-old Palestinian was killed in Beit Hanoun by Israeli army fire.

Israel has killed more than a dozen Palestinians over the past four days.

The deaths bring to 4,953 the number of people killed, mostly Palestinians, since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada, according to an AFP count.