Living Conditions Worsen
For Palestinians - UN
Haaretz.com
7-30-4
BEIRUT (Reuters) -- Economic and living conditions are getting
worse for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem as a result of
Israel's occupation, a UN report said on Friday.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA) said two million Palestinians were living on less than 2.1 Euro a
day, a poverty rate of 63 percent, in mid-2003.
By March 2003, 42 percent of families were destitute and dependent
on humanitarian assistance. ESCWA said the World Bank had described the
recession in the Palestinian territories as "one of the worst in modern
history". "The present review period demonstrates mounting economic and
social damage under military occupation," the ESCWA report researched
between January 2003 and February 2004 and released on Friday in Beirut
said.
"Most economic and social data show marked deterioration of living
conditions for the Palestinian people, including new forms of
dispossession and destruction of private and public assets of all kinds."
Refugees, women and children bore the brunt of Israeli measures,
ESCWA said. Malnutrition was on the rise. Israeli restrictions regularly
impeded humanitarian services to Palestinian territories.
Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and has stationed
troops there since. The United Nations describes them as Israeli-occupied
territories.
Extra-judicial killings
ESCWA said Israel had intensified extra-judicial killings of
Palestinians suspected of armed attacks against Israelis. Extra-judicial
killings or attempts killed 349 Palestinians between October 2000 and
March 2004, including 137 bystanders. Between December 2002 and December
2003 ESCWA said 785 Palestinians were killed and 5,130 injuries recorded.
Since September 2000, 512 Palestinian children were killed. ESCWA said 946
Israelis had been killed or injured since September 2000.
About 8,000 Palestinians remained in Israeli prisons and detention
centers. Hundreds were subjected to torture or inhumane treatment.
Unemployment stood at 26 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, but
reached 70 percent in some areas. Food consumption was down by 86 percent.
"Humanitarian assistance is not sufficient to ensure a sustainable
life with dignity and rights for the Palestinian civilians under
occupation," the report said.
"The sustainable option for addressing the current economic and
social deprivation lies in lifting the occupation of the Palestinian
territory, as well as the Syrian Golan."
In the Syrian Golan Heights, annexed by Israel in 1981, ESCWA said
Israeli settlements continue to expand. It said access to natural
resources and social services like schooling and medical facilities were
inadequate for the Arab population.
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