The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

Refugees remain most vulnerable under present circumstances, and the
community continues to experience rising levels of unemployment, food
insecurity and poverty.
Since the Israeli military action in December 2008, the blockade has prevented
the UN from conducting any significant repairs or reconstruction.
It also places severe restrictions on goods and services which UNRWA
supplies. An estimated 325,000 refugees are believed to be living in abject
poverty, unable to meet their basic food needs. A further 350,000
are now below the official poverty line.
As the Gaza blockade moves into its fifth year, a new UNRWA report
says that unemployment in the second half of 2010 reached 45.2%, one
of the highest in the world. Real wages continued to decline under the
weight of persistently high unemployment, falling 34.5% since the first
half of 2006 (UNRWA: Gaza Blockade Anniversary Report, June 13,
2011, Jerusalem).
“These are disturbing trends,” said UNRWA spokesman Chris Guinness,
“and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million
population were the worst hit in the period covered in this report. It is
hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately
impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially
productive people to a life of destitution.”
One out of four Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was living
below poverty line in 2010, reported by the Palestinian Central Bureau
of Statistics (PCBS) – 18.3% in the West Bank and 38.0% in the Gaza
Strip.
Amid this economic gloom, UNRWA will continue with its human devel -
opment work serving Palestinian refugees in health and education, running
schools for some 213,000 children in Gaza, helping them towards
having a belief in an educated, dignified and peaceful future. But the
number of people in abject poverty, living on just over one dollar a day,
has tripled to 300,000 since the blockade was imposed and with many
reconstruction projects still awaiting approval, the future looks bleak.
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