A new report from a U.N. aid agency specifically blames Israeli actions for economic turmoil in Gaza. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) paints a grim picture in its report titled "Labor Market Briefing, Gaza Strip" (PDF).
From the time Israeli sanctions began in 2006 up until the second half of 2010 (when the statistics for the report were compiled), real wages fell in Gaza by 35.4 percent. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, stood at 45.2 percent. as of last summer, one of the worst marks in the world.
"It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution," Chris Gunness, an UNRWA spokesperson, said in a statement.
"These are disturbing trends and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population, were the worst hit," Gunness said.
For more: The real winner in Israel's Gaza blockade: Hamas - Israel - Salon.com
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ENDING ISRAEL'S ACCESS to EU markets will end ILLEGAL BLOCKADE
Israeli law does not, and cannot, extend either to Gaza or to international waters. The blockade is a 'collective punishment' that is according to the UN illegal under the Geneva Conventions and international law. This Israeli siege, now in its 5th year of punishing over a half a million Muslim families, is only able to be implemented as a result of the extraordinary economic benefits of having being afforded the privilege, as a non European state, of being given access to the combined markets of the 27 member states of the EU.
This privilege should be immediately withdrawn by the EU, whereupon Israel will once again revert to being just a small insignificant Mediterranean state of just 8m - unable to mount any illegal blockade against an innocent indigenous people.
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