Palestinian Fears Impact on West Bank

A leading Palestinian economist warned Monday of the negative effect of the Persian Gulf crisis on the economy of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Samir Hullaileh, secretary of the Economic Development Group based in East Jerusalem, said the lack of funds coming from the gulf states and the lost jobs of Palestinians could negatively affect “tens of thousands of families” living in the occupied territories.

The drying up of funds, the economist said, could also hurt “the future of a Palestinian state.”

“For 40 years,” he declared in an article and interview, “the finances obtained by Palestinians working in the gulf formed the strategic reserve for building a Palestinian state.”

Millions of dollars of savings by Palestinians working in Kuwait have been lost, said the economist, and he predicted that many of the jobs held by the 300,000 Palestinians working in the gulf region will be gone in the future.

Hullaileh, who was educated at the American University of Beirut, suggested the fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization supported the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein could turn gulf employers against hiring Palestinians.

The economist estimated that $300-500 million a year had been transferred from Palestinians working in the gulf to their families in the occupied territories before the intifada, or uprising against Israeli control, began in December, 1987.

Since then, Israeli authorities have “sharply restricted” the amount of remittances coming back from the gulf, he said, and these will be reduced even further by the turmoil in Kuwait and Iraq.