UN: Palestinian trade stifled by “Israel”

Source: alalam.ir, 30-8-2007
GENEVA-The economy of the Palestinian territories is increasingly stifled as "Israeli" regime`s violence and occupation restrict the prospects for independent growth, a UN report said Thursday.
Goods shipped to and from the Palestinian Territories should in future use ports in Egypt and Jordan and reduce traders` dependence on "Israeli" facilities, the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said.
Mahmoud Elkhafif, an official with the UNCTAD said: "The case of occupation and the increasingly tight "Israeli" measures and closure policies which ... restrict the movement of people and goods from, and to and even within the West Bank and Gaza in the past seven years have effectively isolated the Palestinian economy from the rest of the world."
The Palestinian economy has lost one third of its production capacity since 1998 and UNCTAD estimates the cumulative economic costs in terms of potential lost income between 2000 and 2005 stand at $8.4 billion.
Per capita gross national income dropped by 15 percent in 2006, with unemployment around 30 percent, UNCTAD said citing preliminary Palestinian data.
Imports as a percentage of Palestinian GDP rose to 86 percent in 2006, and imports from "Israel" account for more than 55 percent of the Palestinian trade deficit, according to UNCTAD`s annual report on its assistance to the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian trade deficit stands at 73 percent of GDP, and 65 percent of this is owed to "Israel", Elkhafif said -- meaning that for every one dollar produced, 50 cents must go to "Israeli" coffers.
"The reduced productive capacity suggests that there is a mechanism or momentum that has been created and continuously reinforced to reduce the Palestinian people`s ability to produce domestically and therefore they have to rely on imports mainly from ‘Israel'," the UNCTAD official said.
Moreover, the payments to "Israel" outstrip the total of foreign donor assistance to the Palestinian territories.
In the period between 2000 and 2005, international donor support averaged 1.2 billion dollars annually while deficit payments to "Israel" reached 1.5 billion dollars.
For 2006, donor support is estimated at 900 million dollars while net imports from "Israel" were close to two billion dollars, Elkhafif said.
UNCTAD said the establishment of a commercial transport link between Gaza and the West Bank should remain a priority.
Mahmoud Elkhafif of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development speaks during a press briefing at the UN building in Geneva, Switzerland.