Tranlated by Sabrin Qadah 

The Palestine commission to the United Nations said that the Israeli settlements deplete the Palestinian economy through its control over the natural resources of the Palestinians by using them as safe tax havens for traders and  Israeli busines men,  and as marketing centers of Israeli products in the Palestinian markets without tax disclosure.

This came in a speech delivered by the Palestine counciller 'Abdullah Abu Shawish’ during the special meeting convened by the United Nations for a full day to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the declaration of  the Right to Development on the sidelines of the session 71of the General Assembly. He quoted the report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development «UNCTAD» as evidence which pointed out that during the period from 1975 to 2014, the contribution of  negotiable goods sector declined to be halved from 37 to 18%, while its contribution to the employment dropped from 47 to 23%.

Abu Shawish said that development and peace are inseparable elements and therefore the fact that the palestinians do not enjoy their rights of security and peace necessarily means depriving them of any chance of development, and that after half a century of Israeli occupation, the palestinian economy has become entirely dependent on the Israeli economy.

He also confirmed that although the Palestinian economy is linked to the Israeli economy and a member of the same tax cap and the same crossings and  trade points with the world, which Subsequently means one price rate particularly for main goods, but the difference between the per capita income in the two communities are very huge. For example, the monthly income average of a Palestinian living in Gaza Strip is $ 75 a month, while their Israeli counterpart’s  is $ 2,500.

He called on the world to urgently get out of the condemnation and theoretical rejection circle to real action in line with the international law and the international legitimacy’s resolutions. He said that this can only come by stopping opening markets for israeli goods and by not allowing Israeli settlers themselves to freely enetr airports and capitals of the world, and this is the only the basic guarantor to compel Israel to abide by international law.