Palestine Foreign Minister Nabeel Shaath said that his country is worried about the growing economic losses due to the on going proxy war between Israel and Palestine.
Speaking to rediff.com in New Delhi before his departure to his homeland, Shaath said that the economies of both Israel and Palestine have been shattered so badly that even if the war were to stop now, it would take decades to recover from the impact of the war.
"Palestine has lost close to 350,000 men and women in the war whereas Israel has lost more than 1,000 persons. Over 80 per cent were civilians, causing huge economic loss to Palestine in particular," he said.
Talking about the growth rate, he said that the net earnings of the Palestinians have come down by fifty per cent.
"Before Israel stormed the Arab nations in 1967 and occupied their land, our net income used to be more than $4 billion and it has now come down to $2 billion," he explained.
The loss of assets has been around $3-6 billion, he said.
"The sectors which have been hit badly are agriculture and tourism. Tourism in fact is next to nil. Because of the on going hostilities, no body wants to set up industries in Palestine," he said, adding the net earnings of Israel have also fallen substantially.
"At one point of time they had net earnings of $100 billion a year. This has been affected and it has come down substantially. The only factor why Israel's economy has survived is that some of their industries are mobile -- when times are good they (businessmen) come back to Israel and if the situation is unstable, they move to California and continue their business activities," he added.
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