Palestinian women disproportionately affected by Israeli occupation: report

Palestinian women are earning 80 percent less than their male counterparts and have higher unemployment rates despite being more educated, a UN report has found.

A report released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Wednesday revealed that the post-pandemic Palestinian economy is slowly picking up, but women are being disproportionately affected by poverty.

Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank endure more safety fears than their male counterparts during commutes to work because of Israeli occupation checkpoints, meaning many of them to resort to working from home or staying unemployed, according to the report.

By the end of 2021, 54 percent of Palestinian women were unemployed, compared with 30 percent of men.

Last year, women earned 20 cents of gross national income for every dollar earned by men.

Palestinian women endure more financial hardship despite having better education and more years of schooling than men. 

The overall unemployment rate throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories stands at 26 percent.

The report added that 36 percent of the Palestinian population lives below the poverty line.

Food insecurity between 2020 and 2021 increased from 9 percent to 23 percent in the occupied West Bank, and from 50 percent to 53 percent in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The illegal Israeli occupation, which began after the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, has an essential role in "fragmenting the Palestinian economy and depriving its producers of access to regional and global markets, essential for a small economy with weak domestic purchasing power", the UNCTAD report said.