[Palestine] Economic plight of Palestinians worsening -ILO

from Reuters Alert Net

GENEVA, May 26 (Reuters) - The economic plight of Palestinians is deteriorating, with only 50 percent of men and one in nine women of working age in a job, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Friday.

Despite a slight improvement in the overall economy in 2005 after a sharp downturn the previous year, poverty and unemployment is getting worse in Gaza and the West Bank, the United Nations' agency said in a report.

Four out of 10 Palestinians in the territories under Israeli military occupation or effective border control were living below the international poverty line of $2.10 a day, added the report, drawn up for the ILO's annual conference opening next Wednesday.

"(The) report ... describes a situation that amounts to a daily affront to human dignity," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia wrote in a foreword.

International aid to the Palestinian government has been cut since militant group Hamas won power in elections in January. Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, has refused to bow to international pressure to soften its stand against the Jewish state despite the near collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

Unemployment in the 15-24 age group is 1.6 times the average in the territories.

Some 23 percent of workers are employed in the public sector, severely hit by the aid boycott which prevents the Palestinian Authority meeting its wage commitments in full, the labour body said.

The report said the movement of people, goods and services across the borders of the territories had become even more difficult in the second half of 2005 and early 2006, despite the Israeli military pullout from Gaza.

Getting rid of these barriers, together with a viable trade relationship with Israel and the rest of the world, were the most important steps needed to alleviate the social and economic crisis in the Palestinian territories, it added.