Palestinians' deepening financial crisis 'threatening Oslo Accords'

Source: Independent

Thursday 20 September 2012.

The Palestinian economy is in a deepening crisis because of a shortfall in donor funding and Israeli obstacles to Palestinian investment in the most fertile parts of the occupied West Bank, the World Bank warned yesterday.

The stark depiction of the Palestinians' economic woes is likely to revive fears in the West of further unrest in the Occupied Territories amid a stagnating peace process and a week of protests against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Demonstrations have rattled the Palestinian leadership, prompting one senior official to threaten scrapping the Oslo Accords, a 1993 interim agreement intended as the basis of a two-state solution, and which included accompanying agreements detrimental to the Palestinian economy.

Such a move would have far-reaching repercussions, placing financial and security responsibility for the West Bank on Israel's shoulders. Since the end of the second intifada, the Authority has played a critical role in restoring calm, even as Israel entrenches its occupation of the West Bank, which it captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinians-deepening-financial-crisis-threatening-oslo-accords-8157393.html