Business - AFP
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories strangling economy: ILO
Date: Tue, Jun 01, 2004
GENEVA (AFP) - Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is strangling the chances of economic growth in the area, the United Nations (news - web sites)' International Labour Office warned in a report.
"The reality of life in the territories is one of strangulation of the economy," ILO director-general Juan Somavia said in the report, published on the first day of the organisation's annual conference in Geneva.
"Poverty continues to grip Palestinian communities, relieved only by large-scale international assistance," he said.
A recent ILO mission to the area found that severe restrictions on people's movement and the transportation of goods and services hampered production, employment and wages, the report said.
The ILO estimated that the rate of unemployment in the occupied territories was 20.7 percent in the West Bank and 31.9 percent in Gaza in the last quarter of 2003.
The number of Palestinians working in Israel depended on ever-changing Israeli restrictions, the report charged.
In addition, road closures, security checks and curfews added to the financial strain.
"No sustained recovery of the economy is possible while this situation prevails," said Somavia.
The situation in the occupied territories is just one of the themes expected to be discussed at the ILO conference that runs until June 17 and will gather some 3,000 delegates from governments, companies and trade unions worldwide, including the new Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Zapatero.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Somavia called for a change in the direction of globalisation, noting that 186 million people in the world were officially without a job.
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