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.
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