GENEVA - The economic plight of Palestinians is deteriorating, with only 50 per cent of men and one in nine women of working age in a job, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Friday. Despite a slight improvement in the overall economy in 2005 after a sharp downturn the previous year, poverty and unemployment is getting worse in Gaza and the West Bank, the United Nations’ agency said in a report.Four out of 10 Palestinians in the territories under Israeli military occupation or effective border control were living below the international poverty line of $2.10 a day, added the report, drawn up for the ILO’s annual conference opening next Wednesday. “(The) report ... describes a situation that amounts to a daily affront to human dignity,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia wrote in a foreword.
| And they did it all to themselves, didn't they. |
Unemployment in the 15-24 age group is 1.6 times the average in the territories. Some 23 per cent of workers are employed in the public sector, severely hit by the aid boycott which prevents the Palestinian Authority meeting its wage commitments in full, the labour body said.
| Yep, there's been no planes landing at the Gaza airport since Hamas took over and the people there are out of work. Of course no planes landed there before the takeover, but the people there had jobs, by gum! |
Getting rid of these barriers, together with a viable trade relationship with Israel and the rest of the world, were the most important steps needed to alleviate the social and economic crisis in the Palestinian territories, it added.
| Which means, first off, the Paleos have to quit exploding themselves inside Israel, then they have to stop firing rockets, then they have to quit rampaging with guns, ... |