NEW YORK (Dispatches) – The financial situation in the Palestinian territories is “dire”, a new UN report says citing economic stagnation and persistently high unemployment.
The report released on Thursday by the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, urged for a “coordinated response to address rapid deterioration in #Palestine|ian economic & fiscal situation”.
It called on the international community to work together in the coming months to address the problem.
“Short-term fixes, focused on stabilizing and managing recent crises are necessary, but not sufficient,” said Wennesland.
The report will be presented at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee; the principal policy level coordination mechanism for the occupied Palestinian territories scheduled for next Wednesday in Oslo.
“It is increasingly difficult for the PA [Palestinian Authority] to cover its minimum expenditures, let alone make critical investments in the economy and the Palestinian people,” said Wennesland.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority approved, in an emergency meeting, a number of measures to counter the financial crisis, which may include reducing the salaries of about 140,000 employees.
In September it was revealed that 2020 was the worst year for the PA since its establishment in 1994 due to the Zionist regime’s occupation and the coronavirus pandemic, with the Palestinian economy shrinking 11.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Atallah Hanna on Thursday condemned the Zionist regime’s “arbitrary and unjust decisions against the Palestinian civil institutions.”
Referring to a recent announcement by the occupying regime’s authorities, in which they named six prominent Palestinian civil organizations as “terror groups”, Hanna told foreign media that the rights groups were “Palestinian national and humanitarian institutions that serve the Palestinian people and their just cause.”
“The ones who have afflicted and displaced our people should be called terrorists, not the ones who are defending Palestine and its oppressed people,” Hanna stressed. “The Palestinian people are still suffering from the consequences of the Israeli grievances until today,” he added.
The archbishop called on international human rights institutions “to reject the occupation’s measures which aim at blackmailing rights and civil groups.”
“We reject these arbitrary decisions, and those institutions will continue to perform their mission of serving our people,” Hanna reiterated.