GENEVA, June 5, 2012 (WAFA) – The International Labor Organization (ILO) Monday blamed the Israeli occupation and absence of a peace process for the deteriorating situation of Palestinian workers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
It said in its annual report submitted to the 101st Session of the International Labor Conference that the Israeli occupation and expansion of settlements lead to “a shrinking space for Palestinian development.”
“The situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories is extremely worrying and remains precarious,” it said.
“The peace process is at a standstill more than at any time since the Oslo Accords” of 1993, said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in his preface to the report. He said evolving facts on the ground seriously diminish the scope for a negotiated two-state solution.
“This is due to a particularly damaging combination of political intransigence, the incapacity of outside actors to assist the parties or effectively exercise influence on them, volatility in the region, and the elusiveness of Palestinian reconciliation,” he added.
This is particularly true in what would be an essential part of a future Palestinian state that is area “C’, which covers 60% of the land mass of the West Bank under full Israeli control, with Palestinians denied access to their livelihoods and to one another, added the report.
Somavia called for a development and peace logic which is based on a long-term vision of the economic, employment and security interests of all workers in both the occupied Arab territories and Israel, adding that actions resulting from the stalemate in the peace process also produce insecurity in Israeli society.
“The Palestinian economy has reached limits which cannot be overcome without action on the two major constraints it faces: occupation and separation,” said the press release. “The existence and viability of a fully functioning Palestinian State are in jeopardy if no political solution is in sight, if the heavy military and economic occupation becomes even more severe, and if the settlement economy becomes further integrated into the Israeli economy.”
According to the report, unemployment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory declined by 4.1% in 2011 to 222,000 people, resulting in an overall unemployment rate of 21%, compared to 23.7% in 2010.
This is primarily due to a reduction in the unemployment rate in Gaza by more than 9%, said the report.
However, overall unemployment was still higher than what it was in 2000 when opportunities to work in Israel were significantly curtailed.
ILO report recognized some advances, including the trend of higher economic growth witnessed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory between 2008 and 2010 continued in 2011, as real GDP grew by 10.7%. This overall figure was significantly affected by a 26.6% rise in GDP in Gaza.
R.Q./M.S.
