UN: The Palestine Economic Condition is Getting Worse Due to Covid-19

Yerusalem, MINA – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said, that the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened economic conditions in the Palestine territories, where GDP per capita has been projected to fall 3% to 4.5% this year.

Furthermore, the pre-existing conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories were fundamentally bad. And it will get worse in the coming years as a consequence of Covid-19, said MEMO reported, quoted by MINA on Wednesday.

UNCTAD Division Director on Globalization and Development Strategy Richard Kozul-Wrigh said inequality, debt, insecurity and insufficient investment have been a longstanding problem in the occupied Palestine territories.

He continued Palestinian health officials have reported, as many as 215 deaths due to Covid-19 and more than 35,000 infected in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Then, UNCTAD Aid Coordinator for Palestinians Mahmoud Elkhafif warned, that the lack of essential medical supplies in Gaza could complicate treatment effectively.

“Aid support is expected to decline in 2020 to US $ 266 million, the lowest in more than a decade,” he said.

“Unemployment was already at a” depression level “of 33% last year,” he added.

Elkhafif said, in April 2020, the revenue collected by the Palestine National Authority from trade, tourism and transfers had fallen to the lowest level in 20 years.

To allow for the expansion of Israel settlements in the West Bank, Israel’s planning and zoning regime, makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits to build on their own land for any purpose.

Last year, Israel destroyed and confiscated 622 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank. (T/Hju/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)