Palestine: Carter, World Bank Issue Warnings

World Bank warns of Palestinian crisis:

The World Bank has warned donors that the financial crisis gripping the Palestinian Authority since Hamas won election is deeper than it first thought and could render the West Bank and Gaza ungovernable.

In a memo circulated among major donors and obtained by Reuters, the World Bank also said an existing aid program could be expanded to pay for the salaries of employees of the Hamas-led government.

In March, the World Bank projected that by the end of 2006 Palestinian poverty and unemployment levels would rise to 67 and 40 per cent, and personal incomes would drop by 30 per cent.

"We now consider these figures underestimates," it said in the memo.

Jimmy Carter:

Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life