Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has cost the economy of the Palestinians more than $2.5 billion a year for the past two decades, a U.N. report said Monday.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report estimated the total fiscal loss to the Palestinian government between 2000 and 2017 at $47.7 billion.
The figure included $28 billion in accrued interest and $6.6 billion in leakage from Palestinian fiscal revenues.
It said the amount would have been enough to eliminate the Palestinian government’s $17.7 billion budget deficit over the same period more than twice over.
The report argued if the $47 billion had been invested sensibly in the impoverished Palestinian economy, it would have created an extra two million jobs over the 18-year period, or 110,000 a year.
The report was presented at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) in the West Bank city of Ramallah, home to the Palestinian government.
Misyef Jameel
, senior researcher at MAS who worked on the report, said they only measured the direct fiscal impact.
The real figure for all loses was likely much higher, he said.