Israel confiscated 33,000 squares of Palestinian lands
Palestine, Economics, 9/19/1997

The Secretary General of the Palestinian Trade Unions, Haider Ibrahim, stated that Israel confiscated 33,000 squares of Palestinian lands during the first 6 months of this year. Haider added that Israel is controlling about 70% of the lands in the West Bank and 40% of the lands of the Gaza Strip.

Haider stated that the number of closures imposed on the Palestinian lands from 1994 till now is 34, lasting for 342 days and resulting in losses worth $6.45 million to the Palestinian people. Haider said that the Palestinian Authority needs $18.5 million each month to provide temporary job opportunities to 55,000 Palestinian workers whose unemployment is caused by the economic blockade and closures imposed by Israel. The unemployment rate reached 35% of the total working manpower.

The Secretary General of the Palestinian Trade Unions said that the Israeli authorities withdrew the identity cards of 60,000 Palestinian residents of the city of Jerusalem and ordered the demolition of 200 houses which were built without permits. He stated that 560 houses of Palestinian were demolished since the Oslo agreement was signed till now. The Israeli authorities complicates the procedures of getting a permit to build a house and raised the fee for each permit to $25,000.

Haider appealed to the Arab and Islamic world to confront these attempts aiming to change the demographic nature of the Jerusalem.

Previous Stories:
  Gaza losses are more than $1 billion   (9/17/1997)
  Gulf and Foreign Projects   (8/30/1997)

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