Palestinian unemployment blamed on Israel

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 12 (UPI) -- The Arab League's representative to the United Nations blamed the rising Palestinian unemployment rate on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Ambassador Saad al-Fararji said at a forum on the sidelines of the annual conference of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, the jobless rate in the Palestinian territories has risen as high as 86 percent, KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, reported Friday.

Fararj said at the forum, which was aimed at expressing solidarity with Palestinian workers, the poor job market is the result of dangerous and unhealthy conditions created by the occupying Israeli forces. He said the conditions worsen sentiments of frustration and disappointment among Palestinians and undermine attempts at peace.