会痛的十七岁
Prices in West Bank Continue to Soar; Local Employee Says Palestinians Can Hardly Make Ends Meet_我的网站

一 | In recent months, the prices of all basic products in Israel as well as fuel and real estate have gone through the roof, and Israelis have already started voicing their concerns. They've set up tents in the center of Tel Aviv and are planning to take to the streets on Saturday evening to vent anger at the government for failing to address their economic concerns.,A similar phenomenon is also being seen in the West Bank. In early June, Palestinians started demonstrating in several locations across the West Bank, demanding that their government tackle the soaring food prices that have gone up by 30 percent since March.,Not Able to Make Ends Meet,Nizar Nobani, a Palestinian employee of the PA security forces, is just one of many who have been feeling the sting of soaring prices.,The 49-year-old father of six rents an apartment in the West Bank city of Nablus, where he pays about $450 per month, and he says he can barely make ends meet.,"I receive some 4,000 shekels per month [roughly $1,200]. Half of my salary goes to pay for rent and various bills. The other half goes to provide food, education and clothes to my family, and this is definitely not enough," he complained.,Not long ago, the situation had not been that bad for Nobani. Before the price hikes, he admits his economic situation was bearable. He provided for his family and even managed to save some money from his monthly salary.,Now his savings are all gone. Local authorities have tried to explain to the masses that the spiraling prices were triggered by the raging hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, something that influenced the export of grain. But Nobani is certain it is only a small piece of the puzzle.,"I started noticing that the prices were going up a year ago, long before the eruption of the hostilities in Ukraine," he recalled.,"Of course, whatever is happening in the world affects us. But our financial situation has been bad even before. Part of the problem was the coronavirus pandemic. Another one was the lack of any strategic economic plan put forward by the PA. And that has made us vulnerable to new crises," he added.,Government to the Rescue?,The outbreak of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories in March 2020 has shattered the already fragile Palestinian economy. In 2021, the PA reported that 34 percent of its population was unemployed. Poverty reached 29 percent, an eight point spike from 2016.,Israeli Parliament Rejects Bill Extending Country's Law in West Bank, Reports Say7 June, 07:07 GMT,The PA has been struggling to cope with the crisis, partially because it lacked the necessary funds; and partially due to the fact that no economic assistance has been offered to the population. The result was that people like Nobani felt helpless.,"The only thing I am getting from the government is my salary. As I am considered a government employee I am not allowed to take any odd jobs, but the government doesn't lift our salaries either, so there is a gap between what we are earning and the daily expenses that continue to rise," he lamented.,Nobani is supportive of the protests now taking place across the West Bank. Just like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, he wants to live in dignity. But looking at the situation now, he says his hope for a better future are slowly vanishing.,"If it continues like this, I doubt we will see an improvement. And this means that we will continue to become poorer."。 The ouster of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has roused substantial global media attention, particularly in light of the colorful images coming out of the country of protesters storming his opulent Colombo residence and turning it into a tourist attraction, posing for selfies, and organizing pool parties and cookouts.,But the chaos in Colombo isn’t the first time in the last decade or so that a head of state has been ousted from office in a time of crisis and forced to flee, with the last dozen years witnessing at least five comparable cases.,Ashraf Ghani’s Bags of Money,Last August, a ten-day blitzkrieg offensive by the Taliban* to capture cities in the midst of the NATO withdrawal culminated in the fall of Kabul and the collapse of the Afghan government. President Ashraf Ghani, the US-educated academic-turned president, fled the country he ruled at the West’s behest for seven years.,Ghani evacuated Kabul on August 15, the same day that Taliban fighters entered the city, and eventually ended up in the United Arab Emirates, where he took refuge. Ghani apologized to his countrymen and women for bolting, saying that leaving the capital “was the most difficult decision” of his life and that he took it to avoid a repeat of the bloody street fighting witnessed in the city between government and Taliban forces in the 1990s. In addition, he said, his security team had advised him not to stay due to the risk of assassination or capture.,The Russian Embassy in Kabul painted a different story, alleging that Ghani fled the city in a convoy of vehicles stuffed with so much cash that it could not fit in a helicopter which took him out of the country. UK media later alleged that Ghani may have sought to smuggle as much as $169 million in cash out of Kabul, with a former bodyguard later confirming that the ex-president’s entourage was carrying “many big bags” containing “hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars.”,Ghani has categorically rejected the allegations against him, and has said that he would welcome an international investigation to clear his good name.,AfghanistanEx-Afghan President Ghani Says He Was Made 'Scapegoat' for Fleeing, Blames Trump - Report 31 December 2021, 03:27 GMT,Evo Morales’ Happy Ending,On November 10, 2019, Bolivia’s long-serving democratic socialist president Evo Morales was forced to step down after weeks of protests sparked by an election whose results were disputed by the country’s US-backed opposition. Characterizing the crisis as a “coup” and fearing he would be killed by assassins hired out by his enemies, Morales fled to Mexico, where he was granted asylum by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.,The Trump administration hailed Morales’ ouster, with the US president tweeting that the unrest sent “a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail.”,But the anti-Morales’ plot’s victory was short-lived. Immediately after touching down in Mexico, Morales vowed that he’d remain in politics, and that his “fight” against “discrimination and humiliation” would continue.,In late 2019, after the election victory of leftist forces in Argentina, Morales traveled to that country, where he was granted asylum. In November 2020, after new elections in his home country saw the victory of Luis Arce, his former finance minister, Morales triumphantly returned to Bolivia. Today, although he is not president, Morales remains a major force in Bolivian politics, consistently attacking “Yankee imperialism” and recently calling on Bolivia and Argentina to join forces to become a global lithium-producing superpower.,The fate of his adversaries has not been so bright, with Jeanine Anez, the right wing politician who took over after Morales’ ouster, recently sentenced to ten years in prison for her role in the 2019 coup.,© Photo : Twitter / @evoespuebloFormer Bolivian President Evo Morales during his triumphant return to his home country in November 2020.Former Bolivian President Evo Morales during his triumphant return to his home country in November 2020.© Photo : Twitter / @evoespueblo,Yemen’s Hadi,In 2012, Yemeni politician Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi seemed to have the world at his feet. Succeeding President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whom he faithfully served as vice president starting in 1994, Hadi won the February 2012 presidential elections with an impressive 100 percent of the vote, running as the sole candidate. He proceeded to initiate a US- and Saudi-supported reform program aimed at transforming Yemen into a federal model of government under which six regions would enjoy large-scale political autonomy. Hadi also supported ramping up cooperation with Washington to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden, and al-Qaeda** cells attempting to set up shop in Yemen’s sparsely populated northeastern territories.,Hadi’s reforms, allegations of corruption, and the ill-fated decision to end fuel subsidies in 2014 proved fatal, and between late 2014 and early 2015, much of the country was overrun by the Houthis, an Islamist, social justice-oriented political and militant movement dominant in the country’s populous western provinces. In January 2015, Hadi left his presidential palace in Sana’a for the last time, and, without resigning, flew to Saudi Arabia.,© AP Photo / Hani MohammedShiite Houthi tribesmen hold their weapons as they chant slogans during a tribal gathering showing support for the Houthi movement, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday Sept. 21, 2019Shiite Houthi tribesmen hold their weapons as they chant slogans during a tribal gathering showing support for the Houthi movement, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday Sept. 21, 2019© AP Photo / Hani Mohammed,Two months later, in March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition began a military operation in Yemen aimed at restoring Hadi to power. Seven years on, the coalition has made little progress, and the impoverished southern Arabian nation remains mired in a deep political, military, economic and humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, the Houthis have counterattacked by launching drone and missile strikes targeting Saudi infrastructure, military bases, airports, oil facilities, missile defense systems and cities, with no amount of sophisticated US-made air defense hardware seeming sufficient to stop the attacks.,As for Hadi, the exiled president resigned from the post in April, transferring power to an eight-member ‘presidential leadership council’ tasked with negotiating a permanent ceasefire with the Houthis.,Saudi Arabia ‘Pushed’ Yemen’s Hadi to Resign, Placed Him on House Arrest - WSJ17 April, 22:22 GMT,Ukraine’s Yanukovych,Of all the ejections from office featured in this list so far, perhaps none have been more consequential to the geopolitical instability being experienced by the world today than that of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.,Yanukovych handcrafted the crisis which would culminate in his ouster in the winter of 2013 by pulling a major political U-turn and rejecting an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. The decision prompted pro-EU protesters to flood the center of Kiev, with demonstrators establishing tent encampments and occupying the heart of the city – the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (lit. ‘Independence Square’).,Protests continued for weeks, with Yanukovych making concessions under EU pressure, accepting the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov in late January, and negotiating with an increasingly emboldened opposition to try to resolve the crisis.,On February 20, protests turned bloody, with 49 demonstrators and four police officers killed by mysterious snipers in a single day. On February 22, just a day after reaching an EU-backed agreement on the settling the crisis through early elections, Yanukovych fled Kiev in fear for his life, traveling east and slipping across the border into Russia, where he was offered refuge. Pro-European forces in Ukraine’s parliament drafted a resolution to strip Yanukovych of power, claiming he had “withdrawn from his duties in an unconstitutional manner.” From Russia, Yanukovych blasted the new authorities, and characterized his ouster as a coup d’état.,Kiev, Washington Responsible for Failure of Minsk Peace Agreements, Ukraine's Former President Says14 March, 15:17 GMT,Tunisia’s Ben Ali,On January 14, 2011, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 24-year reign as Tunisian leader came to an end, with the president and his family fleeing the country to Saudi Arabia after weeks of protests which would hail the start of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. The ‘Tunisian Revolution’ was driven by long-standing grievances among Tunisians about corruption, high unemployment, inflation, and general poor living conditions, as well as limitations on freedom of speech. The protests were sparked by 26-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in the street after police confiscated his wares when he failed to pay a bribe, and after his plea for help from the local governor was left unanswered. The young man's act, which would cause over 100 copycat immolation attempts, would spark a month of protests which culminated in Ben Ali’s ouster.,After his ejection, the Tunisian president would live to a ripe old age of 83, passing away in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in September 2019. But the unrest which his removal sparked would end up transforming much of the Middle East and engulfing some of its countries in crisis which continue to reverberate to this day. In 2011, major protests rocked Algeria and Yemen, and led to the overthrow of the government of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. In Libya, NATO lent a ‘helping hand’ to anti-government rebels by launching a campaign of airstrikes against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, culminating in his ouster and televised murder, and turning Libya into a failed state. The contagion of the Arab Spring also spread to Syria, which was turned into a breeding ground for jihadist militants who flocked to the country from the region and across the globe to take part in the unsuccessful US, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari-backed campaign to try to oust the government of Bashar Assad.,Ousted Tunisian President Ben Ali Buried in Saudi Arabia - Reports21 September 2019, 17:53 GMT,* An organization subject to United Nations sanctions for terrorist activities.,** A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.。
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