| "Nope. Can't do it. Too busy occupying. Try asking Soddy Arabia." |
The World Bank called on Israel to sharply reduce army closures which have decimated Palestinian trade and employment, painting a bleak picture of the economy of the occupied territories. Four years into the Palestinian uprising, average incomes have dropped by more than a third and a quarter of the workforce is unemployed, said one report entitled: "Four years - Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis". A massive 47 percent of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories live below the official poverty line, on barely two dollars a day, the report found. "More than 600,000 people - 16 percent of the population - cannot afford even the basic necessities for subsistence."
A second report entitled "Deep Palestinian Poverty in the Midst of Economic Crisis" said that generally well-targeted donor relief had helped in preventing widespread malnutrition and lowered the poverty rate. But it warned that "in the short term, a significant portion of the Palestinian population is likely to remain poor and increasingly vulnerable to further shocks as their savings are exhausted". Donors disbursed 883 million dollars in 2003 - 264 million of which went to emergency and humanitarian aid and the same amount to budget support.
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