World Bank criticises Israel........

[Thinkerman]

World Bank criticises Israel

 

 

Many Palestinians live on $2 a day

Israeli-imposed closures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are continuing to cause severe economic problems for Palestinians, according to a new report from the World Bank.

It says more than half the Palestinian population is now living on less than two dollars a day and that only massive foreign aid is preventing full economic collapse.

 

This is an attempt by the World Bank to quantify in facts and figures the enormous human suffering the conflict with Israel is causing the Palestinian people.

 

It says the main cause has been Israel's closure of routes from Palestinian areas into Israel and the imposition of curfews and closures in Palestinian towns and villages.

 

"In practice, these restrictions are applied more rigorously to manufacturers and traders attempting to move goods out of Palestinian cities than to those bringing goods in from Israel," says the report.

 

Israel's challenge

 

The World Bank acknowledges that Israel has regretted the impact of these measures, which it says are aimed at stopping suicide bombers and gunmen from killing its citizens.

 

 

However, the Bank stresses that the actions of the Israeli Government have a direct impact on the Palestinian economy.

 

"The challenge is to find ways of [defending Israel's citizens] without destroying the Palestinian economy and livelihoods of ordinary Palestinians."

 

Overall, the Bank estimates that the intifada, or uprising, which began in September 2000, has now cost the Palestinian economy more than $5bn - the equivalent to all the wealth created by Palestinians the previous year.

 

PALESTINIAN TRENDS 2002

Gross national income: $3.3bn (2001: $4.5bn)

Gross domestic product: $3bn (2001: $4bn)

Exports: -34.8% (2001: -13%)

Imports: -17.3% (2001: -29%)

Source: World Bank

 

Half the workforce is without a job and 60% - about two million people - live on less than $2 a day.

 

The report also points out that the private sector has borne the brunt of Israel's incursions, with agriculture and commercial assets suffering more than half of all physical damage.

 

Need for reform

 

The World Bank says the process of reforming the Palestinian Authority is crucial in rebuilding its international credibility.

 

It says considerable progress has been made but that the Authority risks losing its legitimacy to govern unless the full reform programme is successful.

 

Adolescents are prone to trauma

 

As well as cataloguing the economic deprivation, the World Bank highlighted the plight of male adolescents, who it said increasingly resorted to violent behaviour.

 

"Of an age to understand economic hardships that their families face, but generally too young and inexperienced to be able to help much, they are particularly susceptible to trauma," the report says.

 

Nevertheless, it adds Palestinian society has displayed great cohesion and resilience.

 

"Despite violence, economic hardship and daily frustrations of living under curfew and closure, lending and sharing are widespread and families for the most part remain functional.

 

"The West Bank and Gaza has absorbed levels of unemployment that would have torn the social fabric in many other societies."

 

Bleak prospects

 

For the long-term, the World Bank is concerned that the Palestinians' competitiveness is being eroded with each passing month.

 

It is important, however, to underline that such a policy shift will require the active cooperation of Israel to succeed

 

World Bank report

Total investment in the territories has contracted from $1.5bn in 1999 to $450m in 2002.

 

The World Bank also notes that the intifada has demonstrated how dependent the Palestinian economy is on exporting labour to Israel.

 

Internal closure has made it hard for many workers to travel through Gaza or the West Bank to work in Israel.

 

The report concludes that restoring access to the Israeli labour market would be the quickest way to boost incomes for ordinary Palestinians.

 

However, it calls for a more "diversified development strategy" to reduce the Palestinians' economic dependence on Israel.

 

"It is important, however, to underline that such a policy shift will require the active cooperation of Israel to succeed, and is thus part and parcel of a political rapprochement."

[SomaliaOnline-President]

Hi Shujui

 

I really doubt the World Bank could do much in terms of helping the palestinians. The US owns 80% of the world banks share(s). And the same is true for IMF.

[Thinkerman]

Very true.......but it just shows how far down the line Israel has gone, and how difficult it has become for Organization such as the world bank to remain silent and that s a good thing.

[SomaliaOnline-President]

Organizations like the World Bank wouldnt do anything, or get involved in anything unless there is money to be made. I think the ONLY the reason they want the Palestinian government to reform is, so they can start loaning money and charge huge interest fee for that. They had a similar scheme in Africa where the World Bank, had loaned money to some African nations to build public with huge loaning fee. Making money is their only concern.

[Valenteenah.]

Originally posted by SomaliaOnline-President:

Organizations like the World Bank wouldnt do anything, or get involved in anything unless there is money to be made. I think the ONLY the reason they want the Palestinian government to reform is, so they can start loaning money and charge huge interest fee for that....Making money is their only concern.

Ditto!

 

Israel's challenge

 

The World Bank acknowledges that Israel has regretted the impact of these measures, which it says are aimed at stopping suicide bombers and gunmen from killing its citizens.

 

 

However, the Bank stresses that the actions of the Israeli Government have a direct impact on the Palestinian economy.

 

"The challenge is to find ways of [defending Israel's citizens] without destroying the Palestinian economy and livelihoods of ordinary Palestinians."

 

Overall, the Bank estimates that

the intifada, or uprising, which began in September 2000, has now cost the Palestinian economy more than $5bn

- the equivalent to all the wealth created by Palestinians the previous year.

This is not criticism, it is a rap on the knuckle for Israel. Also, the WB is putting half the blame on the Palestinians themselves, as if they have a choice on anything regarding their lives.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the World Bank can shove its criticisms and keep its money-hungry gob shut, just as it has for the last 50 years.

[Thinkerman]

Yeah actually come to think about it Doesnt really say much about the preception of Israel as a 'Legitimate democracy'when you put it into that context Barwaaqo.

 

I suppose it might even be quite opposite what i thought........especially if it implies that the Pal are in part to blame for their economic woes amongst other things.

 

oh well.

[Thinkerman]

Israel Kills 11 Palestinians in Raid After Bus Blast

1 hour, 9 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!

 

 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

 

JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, when troops stormed a Gaza Strip (news - web sites) refugee camp on Thursday after a suicide bomber killed 15 people on an Israeli bus.

 

 

More than 140 Palestinians were wounded during the nine-hour Israeli raid, part of a spasm of violence that has battered U.S. hopes of calming the 29-month-old conflict ahead of a possible war on Iraq (news - web sites).

 

 

Israel's army launched the Gaza operation just hours after the first Palestinian suicide bombing in two months ripped through a bus packed with high school students in the port city of Haifa. A 14-year-old American girl was among the dead.

 

 

Witnesses and medics said the tank round crashed into a crowd watching firemen hose down a commercial building set ablaze in the raid on Jabalya refugee camp which triggered hours of pitched gunbattles.

 

 

Palestinians said the blast killed eight unarmed civilians. Amid the chaos, two headless bodies lay on the ground. Bloodied survivors crawled or were dragged through dirt streets.

 

 

Gaza hospitals were overwhelmed with wounded, many of them children pleading for help. "God help us, we are running out of medicine, we are running out of blood," a doctor shouted.

 

 

The militant Islamic group Hamas, behind a wave of suicide attacks on Israelis, vowed revenge, saying: "The Jews will pay a dear price."

 

 

The army insisted it had done the utmost to avoid civilian casualties and said the tank shell had hit a man standing in an empty street, aiming a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at troops as they withdrew from the area.

 

 

Israeli government officials said most, if not all, of the Palestinians killed were gunmen. Palestinian medical officials said five of the fatalities ranged in age from 13 to 16 and a 60-year-old man was also shot dead.

 

 

PALESTINIANS CONDEMN RAID HELICOPTERS STRAFE STREETS

 

 

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned the raid as an act of revenge by Israel for the Haifa bombing.

 

 

The army said it was "part of an ongoing war against terror and its infrastructures" and said troops arrested a senior Hamas "terrorist," demolished his house and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives.

 

 

Among the dead in Wednesday's Haifa bus bombing was a U.S. citizen, Abigail Leitel, 14, a student at a local high school taking part in an Arab-Jewish co-existence project.

 

 

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron identified the Haifa bomber as Hamas member Imran Salim al Qawasmeh, 21.

 

 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said a letter praising the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington was found on the bomber's body after the blast, which blew off the bus's roof and hurled bodies into the street.

 

 

Five of the dead ranged in age from 12 to 17, including students returning home from class. Two soldiers were also killed. More than 40 people were wounded.

 

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Israel blamed President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) for failing to rein in militants. The Palestinian Authority denied responsibility and condemned the attack.

 

HELICOPTERS STRAFE STREETS

 

 

 

Brigadier-General Gadi Shamni, Israel's Gaza brigade commander, said the Jabalya operation was not retribution for the Haifa bombing but a continuation of an offensive against militants in the area that began two weeks ago.

 

Those raids, reflecting the tough line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s new rightist government has been taking against militants, have drawn rare U.S. condemnation of Israel over the killing of Palestinian civilians.

 

 

In Jabalya, helicopters raked streets with machinegun fire trying to pick off gunmen scrambling to take up positions. Around 90,000 people are crammed into the camp, a hotbed of militancy during a Palestinian uprising for independence.

 

Two Palestinian journalists working for Reuters were among those wounded by the Israeli tank shell. Photographer Ahmed Jadallah was hit by shrapnel in both legs. Television cameraman Shams Odeh suffered a fractured foot.

 

In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad militant in a shootout, witnesses said.

 

Israel's security cabinet, in a meeting after Wednesday's suicide bombing, decided to step up military action against Palestinian "terrorist" cells, Israeli security sources said.

 

Some 3.5 million Palestinians living under Israeli closures and curfews imposed in response to violence fear a tougher crackdown as the world focuses on a build-up to war in Iraq.

 

At least 1,903 Palestinians and 706 Israelis -- not counting the Haifa casualties, who were not immediately identified -- have been killed since the uprising began.

 

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Interestingly enough Watching the 'supposedly Objective' BBC Report yesturday on the Bomber yesturday the bbc, Just subtely mentioned, that Hamasa Claimed responsibilty for the attact after the Killing of 70 Palestinans last month .