UN Warns Palestinian Economic Destruction

Gaza, MINA – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warns the collapse of the Palestinian economy due to acts of destruction by Israeli occupation.

In a report quoted by MINA from Palestinepost24 on Sunday, UNCTAD said Palestinian economic performance and humanitarian conditions reached an all-time low of 2018 and early 2019.

They added unemployment rate in Palestinian Occupied Territories continued to increase in 2018, reaching 52 percent in Gaza and 18 percent in the West Bank.

They also said real wages and labor productivity had declined. In 2017, real wages and productivity per worker were 7 and 9 percent below their level in 1995, respectively.

“Income per capita is falling, mass unemployment is increasing, poverty is deepening and health costs are increasing in Gaza Strip and West Bank,” the report said.

Due to Israeli occupation measures, Gaza’s economy has shrunk by 7 percent and poverty has deepened, investment has virtually disappeared, down to 3 percent of GDP, 88 percent of which has been channeled to rebuild structures destroyed during several major military operations in the past 10 years.

The economic slowdown in the West Bank, UNCTAD said that it was marked by a decrease in aid support, a shrinking of the public sector and deteriorating health security, which hampered private sector activities.

“Overall manufacturing in value-added shrank from 20 to 11 percent of GDP between 1994 and 2018, while the share of agriculture and fisheries declined more than 12 percent to less than 3 percent,” the report said.

“Palestinians do not get their rights to exploit oil and natural gas resources and therefore lose billions of dollars in income,” he added.

Therefore, UNCTAD emphasizes that the international community must help the Palestinian people to secure their rights to oil and gas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and ensure their rights in natural resources that are collectively owned by several neighboring countries in the region. (T/Sj/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).