Thousands of Palestinians may lose jobs in Dubai crash
Analysts say the financial crisis will affect Palestinians working in Dubai as well as those in the territories.
By Reuters and Avi Issacharoff Tags: financial crisis Israel news PalestiniansThousands 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.
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.
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"My dream was to buy a flat on the world island" In Israel or Palestine?
with my husband and retire there. Now I don't know. With my small salary as a librarian we will probably will stay in NY
I am pretty sure Obama talked already about giving US citizenshisp to a certain number of palestinains ( in the thousands ) So maybe you will have 100,000 palestinians collecting welfare in the US if this peace process goes forward. Maybe the government can pass a new bill cash for donkey carts. Trade in your old donkey cart and the government will give you money to buy a new car.
The population of Dubai is just over 1 million citizens so they can take in 5 million palestians. They employ them anyway give them all a passport and make the official citizens of Dubai. even during a recession they will have a higher standard of living than they will by creating a 23rd arab state and they won't even have to look across a security fence and see an Israeli anywhere in site. Its also a politically stable country so there is no need to worry about different factions fighting for power. PALESTINIAN STATE OF DUBAI ... has a nice ring to it
Bibi has been saying that economic development for the Palestinians is a building-block for peace. Salam Fayyad seems to be the first Palestinian leader with any interest in economic development. The return of productive Palestinian business people from elsewhere in the Middle East should be seen as an opportunity.
simple, the Palestinians who can no longer find work in Dubai will have to go back home then. oh wait, the occupation, yikes!
The Gulf States are slowly realizing that the oil isn't going to last forever so they are looking for new direction for economic development and many of them are trying to appeal to the rich tourists. Tennis tournaments, Formula 1 racing, competing to build the highest skyscrapers, artifical islands for the super rich to buy. These things are all great when people have money in their pockets to come and spend and so in a global recession they will be hit hard. Israel might not be super rich like they do or have all kinds of glammerous events like Formula 1 but it has a steady economy. Science, hi-tec, arms trade, agriculture, tourism etc Its not fancy and doesn't attract the super rich but its sustainable even during when the global economy is bad and its also why the shekel is traded on the international currency exchanges whilet the Dubai riyal is not. As for the unemployed palestinians as long as they don't turn to terror or look to Israel for jobs then who cares what they do.
Dubai is no exception. No country has been "Untouched" by the Global Recession. Dubai is a financial and tourist hub. Property development reached a peak, prices began to drop, many tried to sell their new found apartments and homes. Then came the crash. Similar to Spain. Simply said, Dubai, over developed in property. Dubai as a tourist hub is fine. Dubai as a "services" financial hub is solid. Nobody is rushing to withdraw their funds from Dubai's banks. The thousands of foreign workers, whether from Sri Lanka or Palestinians in the construction sector are the true losers. The writing has been on the wall for some months. Good day from snowy Alps.
Poor unarmed ,innocent Palestinian ,screwed by their own brethren as i ,ve been saying for some time now.The Gulf states Sheiks couldnt care two hoots about the riffraff of their own society ,they,re just their as menial laborers ,exploited by hypocrites ,so now we wait for the Americans to step in and help the corrupt Princes ,Sheiks of the region but at a steep price ,very cheap oil ,inshallah.
So what in essence are you saying obsever,the Shiites are moving in ,highly unlikely ?
Sounds realistic to me as the Gulf states Sunnis are dead scared of the maniacal Shiites not too far away ,what price American naval bases and military personnel in the region very soon ?
That,s no secret RfelMoshe ,just plain Arab/Islam ic corruption while they,re supposed to be celeb rating the Hajj,makes one think of how obscene this whole Hajj charade really is?
Interesting Michael tell us about this Arab/Islam ic apartheid?
Too busy stoning the nearby devil to even notice what,s happening before their very eyes ,how ironic and stupid.
It goes from bad to worse for these imbeciles but they never listen anyway so let the Palestinians sufer some more as they have been doing for the past 62 years .
Haaretz just noticed?
dubai's demise is no surprise . This is /was a place that produced no real added value . most of their capital was spent on projects with high media exposure , but very little economic viability .other gulf states are not far behind . they have currency reserves to back them up , but these won't last forever.
Soon the americans will buy dubai and establish a big naval base to moniter the gulf activities together with the israelis , then it will be easy to hit iran , pakistan and all the nuclear ambitious countries .....Ha Ha ha......This is only window dressing .
on a crash course.
Dubai "discovered" borrowing money to buy up assets all around the world. Stock markets have taken a nose dive.
Send the 100,0000 Palestinians to America. We're open to everyone. Obama will score points with the Arabs and we can put them on welfare.
There are people that were born in Dubai, whose parents were born in Dubai, that have never been to "Palestine", and are considered "Palestinian" and can NEVER be citizens. Imagine a second generation Italian-American being deported to Italy! The Arab States denial of citizenship, employment, security and often, long term residence for Palestinians, in combination with an artificially imposed Palestinian nationalism, is to maintain a ready source of political tension for Israel, rather than re-settling elsewhere and more opportune. as would be the natural human tendency. Simply, the worst enemy of the Arab people has always been the Arab leadership.
"By the way did the Palestinian workers vote? No problem with that disenfranchisement it seems." Many Arab countries do not grant "Palestinians" citizenship, or have revoked citizenship if they have held it. This includes those so-called Palestinians who were born in those countries.
Somebody must be sleeping on the job!
What makes you think the UAE cares enough about the "Palestinians" to let them stay? They are a cheap workforce to Dubai, and nothing more.
They should have built factories to produce actual goods and used cheap Arab labor to compete with the rest of the world. Instead they have nothing. By the way did the Palestinian workers vote? No problem with that disenfranchisement it seems.
especially the arabs, because if it doesn't, then the Dubai will collapse on itself if everyone leaves... think about it... demand for food/shopping is driven by the people that live in Dubai. Those that get fired have to leave the country... If everyone leaves think about the consequences...
Too bad sad but people all over the world are losing jobs