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Palestinian Economy In Shambles After Israeli Offensives
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| Israeli soldiers forcing their way into Arafat's Ramallah headquarters nearly four weeks ago.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Three weeks of Israeli occupation has set the already dire Palestinian economy back three years, officials said Sunday as they faced a shattered infrastructure and soaring unemployment.
"In reality, there is no economy now," said Abdel Hafiz Nofel, director general of trade at the Palestinian economy and trade ministry.
An estimated 65% of the workforce is jobless, many shops and factories across the West Bank are closed, and those still operating are struggling to get materials.
Appeals by desperate families for credit are being rejected by businessmen fearing they will never be paid.
Wages paid in priority to the 112,000 civil servants and police across the Palestinian territories is the respirator keeping the faltering economic heart barely beating, news agencies reported.
"This money is keeping the market moving more or less. If tomorrow there is no salary for the employees it will be a big collapse," Nofel said in his Ramallah office, facing four large building sites of which three were idle.
According to World Bank estimates, the Palestinian Authority needs around $2 billion to meet essential needs this year.
But an international donors conference in Oslo last week came up with pledges of $1.2 billion - $300 million in emergency relief plus $900 million to help rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.
The Israeli army's latest aggressions unleashed on March 29 had the stated aim of targeting “Palestinian militants accused of bloody attacks in Israel”.
However, reports from media and aid workers in the region have illustrated a devastating campaign on behalf of Israel that has seen hundreds of Palestinians assassinated, homes demolished, and entire refugee camps razed.
The latest Israeli invasions into Palestinian towns have left a trail of destruction, with water, sewage and electricity systems damaged, roads gouged by tanks and bulldozers, schools wrecked and files taken from Palestinian Authority ministries.
"The damage is total, and we really don't know how we can manage," Nofel told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"If everything [the Israeli invasions] stopped today, and with emergency aid coming at the same time, it will be at least three years to get the economy on its feet."
Hussain Foqahaa, from the Palestinian Federation of Trade Unions secretariat, put unemployment at about 65% across the West Bank.
"There are no materials for factories, and many roads remain closed and people cannot get to work," he said.
"This is the worst situation since 1967", he added, referring to the Middle East war when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Gloom is written on the face of Naser al-Sharif as he sits beside a silent cash register in his electronic goods shop in Ramallah.
"Business is down 100%. It has stopped. I have sold nothing for a month," he said.
"A lot of people come in and ask about televisions or fridges, but they don't have any money. They want to pay with checks dated many months later but I can't accept that because I don't see the economy improving."
Pleas for credit by housewives struggling to feed their families are being turned down by grocers.
"Business is now 20% of what it used to be," said Ismael Abu Thaher in the Al-Ain Supermarket.
"The people have no money but we do not give loans. We give some things to the very poor people but no credit."
Nofel said some families have survived on "just some oil and some bread for more than six months. I know some families have no money to send their children to school."
Israel has a stranglehold on the Palestinian economy with the balance of trade significantly in its favor.
According to trade ministry figures from before the September 2000 outbreak of the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, Israel accounted for 2.5 billion dollars of Palestinian annual imports worth 3.5 billion dollars.
Imports this year are expected to be half that figure.
Of the annual $800 million worth of exports, some 500 million went to the Israeli market.
Israel was also a major employer of Palestinian labor and a prop for the Palestinian economy, but that has been blocked.
"A few days before the Intifada, we had about 150,000-160,000 workers in Israel," Nofel said.
"Now the damage has become more difficult step by step and we are now in a position of 70% poverty. There are no more workers in Israel."
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