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International Migration News - Volume #8 | |
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Israel-Palestine
The October-November 2000 uprising of Palestinians against Israel resulted in the closure of Gaza and the isolation of many West Bank towns. Unemployment tripled to 260,000, or 20 percent of the 1.3 million Palestinian work force, including 100,000 Palestinians who had commuted daily to jobs in Israel. Nearly one million of the three million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live below the poverty line, defined as an income of about $750 a year. Gaza has the highest rate of population growth in the world- 4.5 percent a year- and families of 10 are common. Israel's $100 billion economy may shrink by one percent because of the violence, but its per capita income is $18,000 a year- the highest in the Mediterranean after France and Italy. The Clinton administration proposed supplementing Israel's annual $2.9 billion aid package with an additional $450 million. Palestinian farmers have been hard hit as Israelis cut down some olive trees that they say are used to provide cover for gunmen. There are about 12 million olive trees on the West Bank, and they produce 30,000 tons of oil a year, or about 20 percent of farm income. The Bank of Israel (http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/) concluded that Israel should not import engineers and software technicians from India for the high-tech industry. Instead, the Bank recommended special taxes on the employers of foreign workers. About 211,000 foreigners were employed in Israel in December 2000, making them 11.5 percent of the work force. They included 98,000 Palestinians, and 123,000 non- Palestinians. The non- Palestinians included 75,000 legal and 48,000 illegal workers.
Tal Muscal, "Central bank: No
need to import high-tech workers," Jerusalem Post, December 19,
2000. | |
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