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Palestinians Lose 5.8 Billion US Dollars Due to Israeli Closure
Palestinian Finance Undersecretary Mohamed Garadah has said that the Palestinians have lost 5.8 billion US dollars due to Israel's seven-month blockade on the Palestinian territories and other destruction measures, the Palestinian Al-Ayyam daily reported on Thursday.
Addressing a symposium on the role of the Arab aid to the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, on Wednesday, Garadah said that the Palestinian National Authority's income has dwindled away from 90 million dollars per month to 20 million dollars, while Palestinian employers' pays stand at 55 million dollars.
There are now 335,000 unemployed Palestinians, increasing the unemployment rate to 55 percent, he said.
A total of 730 million dollars worth of Arab aid to the Palestinian people has been received by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), he added. Out of the sum, 237 million dollars have been transferred to the PNA, he said.
"On many occasions, we sought to change the disbursement mechanism of the IDB, but it refused to give us all the money under different pretexts," he added.
At the extraordinary Arab League summit in Cairo last October, Arab leaders agreed to set up two funds to provide the Palestinians with a total of 1 billion dollars in a bid to support the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
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