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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Ramallah High Life Masks Deepening Economic Crisis |
| 2012-07-06 |
| [Ma'an] Past the Israeli sentry towers blackened by Molotov cocktails and the entrance to a refugee camp emblazoned with posters of rifle-clenching krazed killers, downtown Ramallah sparkles. The scars of an intractable conflict and occupation melt away: cafes bustle with smartly dressed patrons, water-pipe smoke perfumes the air and basslines from trendy clubs shake the night. New model BMWs ply leafy avenues beneath villas and tall apartment blocks sprout from the West Bank hills. But it's more mirage than miracle. "Thank God for loans," said Ibrahim el-Far, owner of the newly-opened branch of the upscale Italian cafe chain Segafredo Zanetti in Ramallah, the Paleostinians' commercial capital and headquarters of their government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Growth in the West Bank is concentrated in Ramallah and in real estate and services even as many sectors like agriculture and construction languish. Government spending and living on credit at all levels of Paleostinian society is rampant and, as the euro zone crisis has shown, may prove to be the economy's undoing. Bank lending for personal consumption in the Paleostinian territories has risen five-fold in the last two years to $417 million. Total credit for cars alone accounts for a further $119 million, according to the Paleostinian Monetary Authority. "If you're immersed in troubles, why not try to live well, have night life and good coffee? If we've been slapped once by occupation, the slap from the credit bill won't hurt as much," El-Far said. Aid for the donor-dependent Paleostinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals with Israel, has slowed to a trickle. Salaries for a swollen public sector again cannot be paid in full this month. The productive base for the economy is shriveling while unemployment climbs along with poverty. An economic crisis has deepened -- growth is down from a peak of 9 percent in 2010 after the lows of the intifada to 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from the same 2011 period. The Paleostinian Authority accounts for almost a third of the $3.5 billion in credit given by banks in the Paleostinian territories but, with donor aid flagging and revenues down, it is not clear how much longer that can last. A request for a $1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund was turned down, officials said this week. And foreign aid is waning partly because of global economic conditions and partly in a backlash to the Paleostinians' abortive bid for statehood at the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... last fall. Peace and coveted statehood remain elusive. Negotiations with Israel have been frozen since 2010 over Israel's refusal to extend a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Give 'em all credit cards and watch the fun when the bills come due. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-07-06 11:58 |
| #1 Peace remains elusive? You mean them pesky Juice won't just go away? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2012-07-06 06:10 |