Mubarak's participation in the blockade helped Gaza reach 45% unemployment

UN: Unemployment Rate In Gaza Among World's Highest

(RTTNews) - The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a report on Tuesday that the Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, and blamed the situation on Israel's continued blockade of the territory.

The UNRWA said its studies had revealed that unemployment rate in Gaza stood at 45.2 per cent in late 2010, admitting that it was a slight improvement when compared to the 45.7 per cent rate posted during the same period in 2009.

But the report pointed out that Gaza's jobless rate in the second half of 2010 was higher than what was recorded in the first half of last year, when a temporary building boom boosted jobs. It also noted that real wages in the coastal strip have slumped by an estimated 34.5 per cent since Israel imposed the blockade four years ago.

"These are disturbing trends and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population, were the worst hit," UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement while releasing the report.

I've for a long time held Gaza as the perfect illustration of modern US/Zionist colonialism but I'm still struck by some statistics. I was struck when the rate of child malnourishment was released, but formal unemployment of near 50% shows how wide the economic damage is.

Of course Egypt's current military leadership has opened Rafah only to limited personal travel. It also seems to be restoring the flow of Egyptian gas to Israel under Mubarak's terms. This is not a good thing, it is not what an independent Egypt would do, but I have no expectations to see an independent Egypt until the political process has started, and so far I'm still optimistic that we will see that process start this year.

The most disappointing thing about the Barack Obama presidency is the degree to which he is an advocate and apologist for maintaining the US/Zionist colonial structure in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait and others. For me personally, the single most disgusting aspect of Obama's advocacy for this US/Zionist colonial structure is his agreement and efforts to ensure that the people of Gaza should be starved for voting not to be part of that colonial structure.

As of today, just like the stooge dictators of the US colonies such as Mubarak or King Abdullah, Barack Obama is not a man worthy of respect. He is not a man whose hand I could shake. Fortunately what he represents, the idea that the US/Zionist colonial structure can and should subjugate hundreds of millions of people in the Middle East to prevent fewer than 6 million Jews in Palestine from enduring the fate of White South Africans, seems to be a declining phenomenon.

I'm fairly optimistic that despite the vigorous and pathetic efforts of people like Mubarak and Obama, the US/Zionist colonial structure will end during my lifetime.