Media coverage
Al Jazeera Net · 2006-01-10
The report describes how many Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip were unable to buy Eid sacrificial livestock because of sharply rising prices and worsening economic conditions. Traders and analysts attribute this to higher global livestock prices, import costs through Israeli ports and crossings, and Israeli closures and restrictions on Palestinian workers, while economic representatives called on the Palestinian Authority to adopt policies that revive the economy and combat poverty and unemployment.
The report describes how many Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip were unable to buy Eid sacrificial livestock because of sharply rising prices and worsening economic conditions. Traders and analysts attribute this to higher global livestock prices, import costs through Israeli ports and crossin…
The hopes of the forty-year-old citizen Hisham Alyan of finding a sacrificial animal were dashed in the bustle of the sacrifice market in central Gaza Strip, after he toured its corners searching for an animal to take home at a price compatible with the amount of money he had with him.
Alyan, who works as a government employee, did not expect such a large rise in the prices of sacrificial animals compared with previous years.
He added in remarks to Al Jazeera Net that this was the first time in his life that he had been forced to return without taking home the Eid sacrifice, noting that he had borrowed some money from a friend to add to the amount he had set aside to buy the sacrifice, but even that did not enable him to purchase one.
The situation of citizen Hisham is no different from that of many Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip, whom the difficult economic circumstances facing the Palestinian areas have prevented from buying the Eid sacrifice, despite their hopes for an improvement in their economic conditions and a recovery in their financial circumstances after the Israeli withdrawal witnessed by the Strip in mid-September of last year.
For his part, livestock trader Ahmad Sweisi said that the rise in livestock prices this year has prevented the majority of Palestinians from coming to the livestock markets to buy sacrificial animals.
Sweisi explained to Al Jazeera Net that the Palestinian areas are witnessing an unprecedented economic deterioration, noting that the rise in livestock prices is due to higher livestock prices in global markets and higher costs of importing them through Israeli ports and crossings.
Economic analyst Omar Shaban believes that Israeli measures, closures, and the prevention of Palestinian workers from working inside the Green Line after the implementation of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip have increased the deterioration of economic conditions in the Palestinian areas, especially in the Gaza Strip.
Shaban noted in statements to Al Jazeera Net that workers and farmers are the groups most harmed by Israeli measures and the state of recession in the Palestinian territories, while pointing out at the same time that the monthly salaries of 40% of employees who receive their salaries from the Palestinian Authority are worth less than the value of the basket of purchases for the families they support.
For his part, Muhammad al-Talibani, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, said that reviving the Palestinian economy requires strenuous efforts by the Palestinian Authority, which must commit to economic policies that guarantee equal opportunities, revive the economy, raise the level of national income, and increase the share of gross national product in Palestinian national industries.
Al-Talibani called on the Palestinian Authority to combat poverty and unemployment by seeking to open Arab and international markets to Palestinian labor in order to raise the level of national income of the Palestinian citizen in a manner commensurate with the high prices from which the Palestinian citizen suffers.__________________Al Jazeera Net correspondent
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