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The report said Palestinian workers and employers face continued Israeli intimidation, harassment and discrimination. |
GENEVA — Poverty has dramatically soared in the Palestinian territories over the past year due to Israeli restrictions and closures, with workers facing continued intimidation and harassment, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
"Closures are the main cause of the worsening socio-economic situation of Palestinian women and men," said the report cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP) late Thursday, May 31.
The report said the number of Palestinian households below the poverty line soared by 26 percent in the past year.
About 2.4 million people – seven out of 10 households – live in poverty, it said.
Two out of three persons are unemployed with 24 percent of the labor force were unemployed in December 2006.
The report, based on missions sent to the occupied lands, Israel and Syrian Golan Heights to assess the situation in the territories, cited a 40 percent drop in the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006.
The Palestinian territories have been hard hit economically by Israeli freeze of Palestinian tax revenues and the US-led Western aid cut since Hamas came to power in January of last year, greatly affecting the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Territorial Disintegration
The report said Israeli security measures, such as closing off the occupied territories and the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, are the prime factors behind the grim plight of the Palestinian people.
"There is territorial disintegration, with a tight network of closures, sophisticated controls and the expansion of illegal settlements," it said.
"Reducing and removing barriers to the mobility of persons and goods within the territories... is foremost among the measures that could avert the mounting economic and social crisis," said the ILO report.
Israel has regularly closed crossings in the occupied Palestinians territories, citing security concerns.
Haartez has said that Israel closes the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only window to the world, to lay pressures on Palestinians.
A recent World Bank report said that Israeli restrictions are dividing the occupied West Bank into economically isolated enclaves, preventing the already sluggish economy from growing and denying Palestinians access to half of the Palestinian lands.
Discrimination
The report said that Palestinian workers and employers were facing continued Israeli intimidation, harassment and discrimination.
"Entrepreneurs, workers and independent producers and farmers suffer multiple discrimination in access to employment and markets," said the report.
It said access to legal process in Israeli courts was often delayed and "costly for (Palestinian) workers who can ill afford it".
The ILO urged Israel, the Palestinian Authority and international donors to pay much more attention to the economic plight of the occupied territories.
"Entrepreneurs and workers need support in order to consolidate enterprises, encourage new investment and diversify economic activity," said the report.
"This could contribute to fostering security and moving closer to a long-term negotiated solution to the (Palestinian-Israeli) conflict."
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