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The Situation in the Palestinian
territories
The Gaza crisis is taking place in the backdrop of a situation
that in Gaza and in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian
Central Bureau of Statistics, is worsening day after day.
Since March 2006, about 150.000 Palestinian civil servants
have seen their salary cut off. This is having direct consequences
on the livelihood of 30 % of the entire Palestinian population
who has fallen behind the poverty line (less than 2 dollars
per day). UNRWA office in the northern Palestinian city of
Nablus is increasingly receiving requests for economic support
from professionals, such as physicians, whountil very recently
never sought the support of international relief organisations.
Public services cannot grant some of the basic services. In
Nablus, hospitals have run out of expensive medicines for
the treatment of serious diseases, such as cancer. These are
expensive medicines which are usually purchased by the state.
In Ramallah, the main hospital and the prison experienced
shortage of food during the first ten days of June, while
the teachers at nearby Birzeit University are working with
half salary. The employees of the Palestinian Central Bureau
of Statistics have been working without salary since March
2006. They come everyday to the office, they say, in order
to escape exasperated quarrels at home.
As a consequence, micro criminality is increasing day by day,
nourishing mixed feelings of discontent among Palestinians.
While the poor and uneducated are inclined to blame Hamas
for the increasing impoverishment of the society, educated
and relatively well-off Palestinians put the blame on Israel
and on International donors, which advocated democratic elections
first, and then refused to recognise the result of the elections,
adopting the attitude of ‘bad masters’ imposing
dos and donts.
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