” “The Palestinian elections in January and the Israeli elections in March, contrary to all hopes, at least so far, have changed nothing in the situation of the Holy Land. It was stated by the Caritas of Jerusalem in the last issue of its newsletter, "Staying in touch". As it presented the "Special operations appeal" (Soa) plan for the Holy Land (visit www.caritas.org), the church body highlighted that "today, Palestine is in a disastrous state", partly due to "the international community’s decision not to establish any relations with the democratically-elected Hamas-led government. This means that 165 thousand employees of the Palestinian Authority have not received their salaries since March 1st and therefore they cannot provide for the needs of their families, one million 250 thousand people. A situation that impacts on the whole population. In Gaza, people have to queue up for food and medicines". Caritas blames the relentless decrease in the work permits released by Israel to Palestinians, which have fallen "from 20,968 in 2000 to 3,698 in the first few months of 2006", and the completion of the "wall" north of Jerusalem, which "will further undermine the Palestinian economy". Caritas is worried not only about the Palestinians, but also about "the rise in poverty in Israel, as proven by the statistics provided by the Israeli National Insurance", and the prices of basic consumer goods (electricity, petrol, milk, eggs, meat, building materials) which are the same for both Palestinians and Israelis. The latter, comments Caritas, "earn an average salary of 20 thousand dollars a year, versus 1,000 for Palestinians". ” “
