Unemployment rate in the West Bank skyrockets, too, thanks to Hamas starting a war ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

Unemployment rate in the West Bank skyrockets, too, thanks to Hamas starting a war

In the wake of Hamas' October 7 pogrom in Israel, Israelis for the most part (but not completely) shut Palestinians out of jobs they had in Israel and the settlements. Very few want to risk the having West Bank Palestinians, who overwhelmingly expressed support for the murder and rape spree, be allowed in their communities.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of unemployed people in the West Bank increased from 129,000 in the third quarter of 2023 to 317,000 in the fourth quarter. The unemployment rate in the West Bank increased from 13% to 32% in the same time period.

The number of Palestinians employed in Israel dropped from 147,000 to 17,000, and the number employed in Judea and Samaria went down from 25,000 to 7,000.

The hit to the Palestinian economy went beyond jobs in Israel. The number of people employed in the West Bank itself went down by about 57,000, showing how important the Israeli jobs are the the Palestinian economy. Not to mention that the jobs in Israel pay more than double the pay of jobs in the West Bank, where the average salary is about $38 a day (NIS 127.)

Even though about 18% of Palestinian workers were employed in Israel before October 7, they were responsible for over 32^ of the income brought home by Palestinian workers.

So Hamas didn't only unilaterally decide to put Gaza Palestinians in misery - their decision that killing Jews is their highest priority also affected millions of Palestinians not even under Hamas rule, but who nonetheless support and celebrate Hamas murders of Jews.

Israel is not obligated to provide jobs to Palestinians. They do it when it makes economic and security sense. The Palestinians changed the equation, and Israel reacted in a quite predictable way. It will take years, if ever, for things to get back to how they were.

But it also brings up the question of what a Palestinian state would look like if the goal shared by both Hamas and Fatah as well as many US college students, to eventually destroy the Jewish state, would come true.

All those high paying jobs would not exist to begin with.

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