Media coverage
Shams News · 2018-01-23
Shams News, citing agencies, reports a post on his Facebook account in January 2018. Shaban argues that Gaza's situation needs a new description that economic and development literature has not yet offered, because familiar indicators such as unemployment and poverty rates cannot convey the depth of the tragedy. The accumulated crisis of blockade, division and marginalisation is eating into the social fabric: dependency has risen, fathers live in humiliation, thousands of traders are bankrupt, purchasing power has collapsed, and indicators of extremism, despair and suicidal thoughts are rising. The catastrophe, he says, is not the occupation's doing alone but has been deepened by Palestinian division, and those who govern bear far more responsibility than the governed.
Shams News, citing agencies, reports a post on his Facebook account in January 2018. Shaban argues that Gaza's situation needs a new description that economic and development literature has not yet offered, because familiar indicators such as unemployment and poverty rates cannot convey the depth o…
Economist Omar Shaban, Director of the PalThink Center for Strategic Studies, said that “the situation in the Gaza Strip needs a new description that has not previously been addressed in economic and development literature.”
Shaban wrote on his Facebook account that “it is not possible to understand or grasp the scale and depth of the tragedy under which the residents of the Strip are suffering by using familiar percentages and numerical indicators such as unemployment and poverty rates and others.
He stressed that the repercussions of the accumulated crisis over the years, driven by the factors of siege, division, and marginalization, are powerfully eroding the social fabric and the collective conscience of the Palestinians of the Strip.
He warned that the humanitarian crisis produces abnormal behaviors, values, and a system of unhealthy social relations, as it has reached all segments, including those who are employed.
Shaban stated that the rates of direct and indirect dependency among these segments have risen, and everyone has become exhausted under the pressure of the ongoing crisis.
He pointed out that there are fathers living humiliation in all its details because of their inability to fulfill their paternal role and meet their families’ expectations of them, and that thousands of merchants are suffering bankruptcy.
Shaban stressed that “all of this coincides with the collapse of the purchasing power of most people and an unprecedented economic stagnation, not to mention a terrifying increase in indicators of extremism, frustration, and the desire for suicide, among other destructive behaviors and concepts,” in his words.
He affirmed that “society as a whole has entered a state of collective depression... and what makes matters worse is that the humanitarian catastrophe is not the work of the occupation alone, but Palestinian division and fragmentation have deepened it.”
The economist said that “society in Gaza is in a state of exposure, attrition, and destruction of its human and political will and its collective system... it is not correct to say that everyone is responsible, for the responsibility of the ruler and the official far exceeds that of the ruled who entrusted their affairs to them.”
Text © Shams News — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source