OK, I know I shouldn’t be ululating
Hit by waning support from fatigued donor nations, the Palestinian Authority has been forced to borrow from banks to pay salaries to its 125,000 employees and may be unable to meet its February payroll, the economy minister said Tuesday. With unemployment rampant outside the public payroll, Palestinians could be facing unprecedented economic collapse after three years of conflict with Israel. "We took loans from the bank for the past couple of months to pay salaries," Palestinian Economy Minister Maher Masri told The Associated Press. "If this situation continues ... we will not be able to provide salaries next month." Masri did not disclose the size of the loans, but figures are likely to be made public when Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad presents the 2004 budget to parliament next week. Palestinians say Israeli travel restrictions and frequent military operations have ruined their economy.
| None of that had anything to do with their own actions, which were models of sweet reason, meticulously equating cause with effect... |
Israel says the restrictions are necessary to prevent terror attacks, pointing to frequent charges of corruption in the Palestinian leadership as a reason for the malaise. World Bank figures show about 40 percent of the Palestinian work force is unemployed and 60 percent of the population live on less than $2 per person per day. Masri said the Palestinian Authority has a monthly income of about $20 million and expenditures of at least $85 million. The World Bank says donors have grown weary at the lack of progress toward peace, while the Palestinians are facing a $400 million shortfall. "They are facing a crisis and it’s getting worse," Norwegian Mideast envoy Jakken Biorn Lian said by phone from Oslo. "They need extra contributions."
| Maybe the fat boys at the top should stop raking it off as it comes in... |
Masri said that Arab declarations of support for the Palestinians were not being matched by remittances, with only Saudi Arabia and Libya agreeing to send money. "The Palestinian cause is not the world’s highest priority these days," he said. |