Subscribe to Print Edition | Mon., November 30, 2009 Kislev 13, 5770 | | Israel Time: 14:07 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
Last update - 09:45 29/11/2009
Thousands of Palestinians may lose jobs in Dubai crash
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
Tags: global financial crisis 

Thousands of Palestinian workers in Dubai may lose their jobs due to the financial crisis there, economists project.

Over the past few months, thousands of the estimated 100,000 Palestinian laborers working in Dubai have lost their jobs. The Gulf state's economy is grinding to a halt, due to the huge international debts the country took on to drive its breakneck expansion coupled with the global economic crisis.

Last week, the Dubai government announced its flagship conglomerate needed a six-month halt to interest payments on $59 billion worth of debt.
Advertisement

Arab financial analysts said the crisis in the Gulf states, compounded by debts and falling oil prices, will affect the economy in the Palestinian Territories, where many families depend on money from relatives working in Dubai, primarily in construction.

Other Palestinians work as engineers, instructors and in technology-related professions in Dubai. Some have started construction businesses there, such as Arab-Tech, which was among the country's first victims of the financial crisis.

This recession resulted in the cancelation of building contracts and projects and sent the industry into a freeze, prompting many Palestinians to leave Dubai for neighboring Qatar - which last month injected $6 billion in fresh capital into its banking system to "restore confidence" in its own economy - and in Saudi Arabia. Some have returned to the West Bank.

One Dubai-based Palestinian businessman said Palestinians working in Dubai were generally "highly skilled personnel with long years of experience in their respective fields."

"Many West Bank families are losing their sources of income, as these people are no longer sending much money," he told Haaretz.

The sheikdom of Dubai, ruled by the Makhtoum family, has staked its future on plans to become the tourist, transport and finance hub of the Middle East, encouraging outsiders to buy apartments in the plethora of new tower blocks sprouting like poplars across the sand. But the international financial conglomerate Citigroup warned has warned that several Dubai developers have been caught in a severe squeeze, and their projects are increasingly unlikely to be finished.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Don't let Shalit die
If Shalit is not freed because of Israel's inspections of bloodied hands, he'll be lost again.
A false Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a neglected city, unrecognized by the world, yet it is Israel's 'eternal capital.'
  1.   Tough 02:07  |  Jim 29/11/09
  2.   I think the UAE should give permenant Residence to its residents 02:10  |  thinker 29/11/09
  3.   The Dubai were Idiots 02:37  |  Joe 29/11/09
  4.   #2 thinker 04:34  |  MichaelF 29/11/09
  5.   No One Has Blamed the Jews Yet? 04:35  |  MichaelF 29/11/09
  6.   #3- Joe 04:38  |  MichaelF 29/11/09
  7.   Interesting 05:30  |  RfaelMoshe 29/11/09
  8.   Re. #4 and #2 05:37  |  Dudka 29/11/09
  9.   NOT just Palestinians.It has shaken the global financial markets. 07:59  |  PETER SM 29/11/09
  10.   The world needs to start waking up... The Arabs are 08:15  |  BBQ 29/11/09
  11.   A New American Base 11:23  |  Robert of Jerusalem 29/11/09
  12.   dubai`s demise is no surprise 13:27  |  lebanese observer 29/11/09
  13.   Dubai `crashed` two years ago 14:00  |  Mark Lincoln 29/11/09
  14.   no4 14:41  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  15.   no.5 14:44  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  16.   no.6 14:46  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  17.   no.7 14:49  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  18.   no.11 14:53  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  19.   no12 14:55  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  20.   Dubai 15:01  |  Samuel 29/11/09
  21.   Bubbles tend to burst. 15:43  |  Stephen. 29/11/09
  22.   Gulf states trying to offer a playboy lifestyle economy 17:11  |  zionist forever 29/11/09
  23.   Palestinians 17:33  |  Hirz 29/11/09
  24.   Opportunity 17:39  |  zenwick 29/11/09
  25.   If they dont want jordan as palestinian state why not Dubai 17:51  |  zionist forever 29/11/09
  26.   8 18:04  |  zionist forever 29/11/09
  27.   My dream was to buy a flat on the world island 03:36  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/11/09
  28.   Yaakov Sullivan 12:28  |  Peter Williams 30/11/09
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Award-Winning 'Obsession'
Watch 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West' Online FOR FREE!
Protea Hills
A Retirement Village in Nature Nestled in the Foothills of Jerusalem
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
12:41 Shalit's father: No news of breakthrough in deal
13:02 France: Give Iran last chance to stop 'dangerous nuclear game'
13:56 Trial of alleged Nazi guard Demjanjuk starts in Germany
11:48 Pro-settler group to Court: Stop settlement freeze
13:07 Hamas influence in Gaza is growing
13:41 Two Border Policeman charged with beating Arab youth
12:22 Israel's top ten must-have gadgets
22:20 TV ROUND-UP: Israel may free 980 Palestinians for Shalit; Iran plans 10 new nuke plants
11:27 Number of people with HIV reaches all-time high in 2009
09:25 Israeli ecologists could help stop global warming
11:45 Censorship is harming the Shalit deal
10:38 Israel's 'hot return' of Sudan refugees prompts UN concern
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved