POVERTY IN THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

That this House notes with grave concern the findings of a recent International Labour Organisation Report that four in 10 Palestinians have been living on the poverty line surviving on less that £1.72 a day in 2005; acknowledges that the absolute number of poor rose from 600,000 in 1999 to 1.6 million in 2005 and that the barriers to mobility of persons, goods and services within the West Bank and between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have worsened in the latter half of 2005-06; recognises the need to work towards lifting these barriers and introducing a viable trade regime in the Palestinian Authority area to alleviate the prevailing social, economic and humanitarian crisis in the territories; and calls upon the Government to work towards ending deprivation and restrictions imposed upon Palestinians living in the occupied territories.