[fajg]

Survey on the Impact of Israeli Measures
Main Findings of the Survey on the Impact of Israeli Measures on the Economic Conditions of the Palestinian Households
Press release – October 1


Caritas Jerusalem wishes to bring to the attention of all concerned individuals, governmental officials, religious leaders and donors the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe facing the Palestinian people. This issue was recently demonstrated again in a comprehensive survey of almost 3,400 Palestinian households in the West Bank and Gaza done by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. This survey is the ninth in a series of such surveys and the trend for Palestinians continues to move farther down into the abyss of poverty and hopelessness. The figures used in the report are in New Israeli Shekels. This currency has depreciated more than 10% against the US dollar and over 60% against the EURO since September 2000. Therefore, the figures given actually reflect an even steeper drop in Palestinian purchasing power than the simple numbers illustrate.

For more information, please consult the following website which has the full English language report listed. http://www.pcbs.org/press_r/econ_9the.pdf
Report Summary
Main Findings of the Survey on the Impact of Israeli Measures on the Economic Conditions of the Palestinian Households

226,000 Palestinian households lost more than 50% of their usual income and about 22.6% of Households in Gaza Strip Suffered from Highly Critical Living Conditions


The PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) conducted the 9th round of the survey on the impact of Israeli measures on the economic conditions of the Palestinian households. Data collection was conducted during the Second Quarter 2004.

The main objective of the survey is to continue monitoring the economic conditions of the Palestinian households and their standards of living as the Israeli measures continued against the PNA and the Palestinian people. This round of the survey is based on a random sample of 3,908 households, of which 3,398 households completed the interview. The completed interviews are distributed by region as 2,228 in the West Bank and 1,170 in the Gaza Strip.

Household’s income - Results indicate that the median monthly income in the Palestinian Territory has decreased from NIS 2,500 (620 USD/706 EURO) before Al Aqsa Intifada to NIS 1,600 (355 USD/289 EURO) during the 2nd Quarter 2004. This decrease varies by region. The median monthly income decreased in the West Bank from NIS 3,000 (744 USD/847 EURO) to NIS 2,000 (444 USD/361 EURO) while in the Gaza Strip it decreased from NIS 1,500 (372 USD/423 EURO) to NIS 1,200 (266 USD/216 EURO).


Results of the survey indicate that 59.7% (362,000 households) of the Palestinian households decreased their income during Al-Aqsa Intifada, of which 62.5% (226,000 households) lost more than 50% of their usual income during Al-Aqsa Intifada, while 63.3% (159,000 households) of the households decreased their income in the West Bank compared with 52.3% (67,000 households) in Gaza Strip.
The Income Sources - Results of the survey indicate that the main income source of the Palestinian households during 2nd Quarter 2004 was wages and salaries from the private sector, (30.7%), followed by wages and salaries from public sector employment (19.9%) and from households projects (14.2%).

Coping Strategies - The results indicated that during year 2003, 58.2% of the households (353,000 households) in the Palestinian Territory reduced there expenditure on basic needs, 59.5% in the West Bank and 55.4% in Gaza Strip.

The results indicate also that 78.0% of the households took various coping measures during year 2003 depending on the monthly family income. This was manifested in delaying payment of bills by 69.4% and reduced expenditure by 58.7%.

The survey indicates that 31.2% of the households in the West Bank can cope with the situation for more than one year, comparing with 26.8% in Gaza Strip. 22.6% of the households in Gaza Strip, and 11.7% in the West Bank suffered from highly critical living conditions.

Humanitarian aid - Results show that 21.2% of interviewed households (128,000 households) reported that they received humanitarian assistance during the 2nd Quarter 2004, of which 18.2% in the West Bank and 27.2% in Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, 71.8% of the households (435,000 households) reported that they need assistance, of which 71.7% in the West Bank and 71.9% in Gaza Strip. About 13.1% of the households receiving humanitarian aid reported that the total amount of assistance received is less than NIS 100, while 39.5% of them have received less than NIS 200, 58.2% have received less than NIS 300. However, the frequency of providing the assistance for households, PNA institutions (including Ministry of Social Affairs) are rated at the highest rank at 28.8%, then comes UNRWA by 25.6%, while relatives by 14.3%, and labor unions by 10.0%. The results reveal also that 52.8% of the total assistance is provided in the form of food supplies, and 28.6% in cash.

Priority Needs of Households - The results reveal that 38.4% of households reported the need for food as top priority during 2nd Quarter 2004, while 19.9 of households reported the need for work, and 18.9% of households expressed the need for money, and 9.0% of households expressed the need for education as their first priority, and 6.4% of households expressed the need for medicine as their first priority.

Access to Health Services - The results indicate that 45.3% of the households have access problem to health services because of the high cost of medical treatment, 40.1% due to the Israeli closure, 38.3% of households because of military checkpoint, and 8.9% of households because of the expansion and annexation wall.

As a social/pastoral organization of the Catholic Church working in the Holy Land since 1967, Caritas Jerusalem wishes to reiterate the need for immediate humanitarian interventions in the Palestinian territories. These should include job creation programs, micro-lending, short and long term medical assistance, humanitarian social assistance, assistance to secure needed medicines and tuition assistance.

-END-

For further information please contact:
Samuel Martin - Communications Officer – Caritas Jerusalem
communication@caritasjr.org Phone: +972 2 628 7574


----------------------
Caritas Jerusalem is a Catholic humanitarian organization engaged in relief, development and social service projects throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is part of Caritas Internationalis, a humanitarian network, which numbers 162 Catholic Member Organizations operating in 200 countries and territories.
If you do not wish to receive press releases from Caritas Jerusalem in the future or if you want to sign up to receive general news articles from Caritas Jerusalem, please inform Caritas Jerusalem at communication@caritasjr.org, phone: +972 2 628 7574

Unholy Alliance in the Holy Land
Reuven Kaminer


George W. Bush made another feeble attempt to show some sort of 'even handedness' between Israel and the Palestinians in his recent address to the United Nations. However, the very hard facts on the ground give daily evidence that Israel's hard line policy of intransigence towards the international community and international law is funded, sponsored and politically supported by the United States.

Israel is maintaining and even intensifying its policy of targeted assassinations from the air. Every few days we are informed by the Israeli army that ithas 'eliminated' such and such 'terrorists'. Both Israeli and Palestinian sources then confirm that additional Palestinians, including women and children, were killed or injured for just being in the vicinity. Targeted assassination has become a routine affair and the fact that Israel had 'progressed' to the use on different occasions of smarter and smarter bombs and even unmanned aircraft missiles for this purpose hardly evoked comment. This extra-judicial means of execution, whereby the Israeli army can kill almost any Palestinian any time and any place, has not caused a ripple in the U.S.-Israeli relationship - though there might have been a negative comment about this sort of activity filed away somewhere in the U.S. Department of State.

Sunday night, September 19, 2004, an Israeli army helicopter missile killed a 'Hamas militant' from the Shati refugee camp. Hospital sources reported that they treated six wounded bystanders who were returning from a mosque. (Ha'aretz, September 20, 2004) A rather routine affair: no need for all the complications related to identification and accusation, no need for a court, a judge or any trial.No prosecution, no deliberation, just plain execution. The technical basis for this sort of thing is the possession of an arsenal of smart bombs, since it would be impossible to maintain that an individual had actually been targeted unless Israel was using one of the high-precision smart bombs.

Just a day later, Ha'aretz correspondent, Aluf Benn reported (Ha'aretz, September 21, 2004) that the U.S. is selling 5,000 smart bombs to Israel.Benn lists the bomb sizes, including, "500 one-ton bunker busters, 2,500 'regular' one-ton bombs, 1,000 half 'tonners' and 500 quarter 'tonners'… [Israeli] government sources said that the deal did not face any difficulties, despite the use Israel made of U.S. made F-16's in some of the assassinations…the IDF used a one ton bomb to kill a senior Hamas officer, SalahShehada, in July 2002 an assassination that also took the lives of fifteen Palestinian civilians, including children."

This morning on Israeli radio, Ariel Sharon reiterated Israel's thinly veiled threats to assassinate Yasser Arafat 'at a time and a place that is convenient to us'. The U.S. President, for his part, preferred a more diplomatic approach and called on the world to stop supporting Arafat.The justification for the 'targeted elimination' of terrorists who were originally defined as 'ticking time bombs' now covers any and all Israeli enemies and opponents. This policy is conducted with the technical ordnance supplied to Israel by the United States. Sharon says that he has the right to assassinate Arafat whenever he sees fit.Sharon doesn't care if the international community will conclude that his threats are actually Washington's real policy towards the elected leader of the Palestinian people.

For Whom These Bunker Busters?

Washington is pushing the United Nations to take action against the Iranian plans to create nuclear fuel.The U.S. is trying to prevent Iran from developing its capacity to produce atomic energy for civilian purposes by arguing that the relevant scientific processes can also then be used to create atomic weapons.However, the Iranian steps seem to be well within the country's rights under the relevant international agreements. The U.S. and other countries refuse to be bothered by 'formalities', which support the Iranian position. But if the U.S. and its Western partners really wanted to speak to the heart of this matter, it would require them to address the very serious challenge of banning nuclear bombs from the entire Middle East. This involves, of course, the 'little problem' of the existence of a serious atomic stockpile of nuclear weapons in Israel.All eyes focus on the Israeli role, but not in the way that one would assume. The United States, instead of opposing the Israeli atomic arsenal, grants total and unqualified protection to Israel's atomic status, directly encouraging the atomic arms race in the region. The U.S. is now playing a new and very dangerous game. It is threatening Iran by proxy and considering a strike against it by surrogate.


After Iraq, the United States appetite for another land war in the region has been greatly diminished. But, the Bushites don't like to admit failure. "Some American analysts warn that the international community has only a year or two to stop the Iranian program from achieving self-sufficiency."So what can be done? "One concern is that Israel, a member of the International Atomic Energy that has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is presumed to have nuclear weapons, may decide to take the matter into its own hands, if diplomacy fails from deterring Iran from becoming a nuclear power." The information is from an article, by International Herald Tribune correspondent, Graig S. Smith, who goes on to comment on the bunker busters supplied to Israel: "Those bombs could be used to destroy Iran's underground nuclear facilities." (IHT, September 22, 2004) Israel 'may take matters into its own hands.' But the Israeli hands are not empty – they hold United States bunker busters. It is just plain convenient for the United States to have in Israel an ally (an "enforcer") which operates beyond the borders of international legality. This is the essence of the 'special relationship' between the two countries


Jerusalem, September 22, 2004