Скачать или смотреть WEST BANK: ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN CRISIS: ECONOMY

(30 Oct 2000) English/Nat

The political violence in the West Bank and Gaza has not just resulted in more than a hundred deaths.

It has also dealt a harsh blow to the Palestinian economy.

On the streets of Ramallah, business is slow.

Few have the money to buy even essential goods.

Many Palestinians travel to Israel to work. But with the Israeli blockade on Palestinian territories, they have not been able to leave the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has lost 875 (M) million U-S dollars since Israel imposed a blockade on Palestinian territories one month ago, in response to the Palestinian uprising.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Palestinian minister of economy Maher Almasri said the loss of income was due to the prevention of more than 120,000 Palestinian labourers from reaching their jobs in Israel.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"In general the whole economic life has almost come to a stop, and the losses are on the increase. The result of this crisis is that because of the closures or the slow down in production, that we have also started witnessing lay offs of workers within the Palestinian territories themselves."
SUPER CAPTION: Maher Almasri, Palestinian minister of economy

The press conference were told that people were being forced to live on their life savings.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have seen a decrease in the purchasing power of the people, we have seen some people going to the banks to take some of their savings, a shopkeeper told me that some people are bringing to his shop old Jordanian dinars, which means they have really eroded their savings."
SUPER CAPTION: Mohammed Shatayieh, Head of the Palestinian Economy and Construction Development Group

But it's not just individuals who are affected, whole families depend on the Israeli wage.

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