Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – A female ex-detainee attempted to set herself on fire Thursday to protest against rising prices in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian police said that 30-year-old Abir Odeh, who was released from Israeli prison within the framework of the Shalit deal, was stopped from setting herself on fire after she had doused herself with petrol at Ramallah's Al-Manara Square. The police added that Odeh was taken to a nearby station for questioning. According to initial investigation, Odeh tried to immolate herself to protest against economic policies of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government and against the rising prices. Odeh was employed by the Palestinian Preventive Apparatus following her release in 2011 as part of the prisoners swap deal that saw the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange with 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Early this month, the Gaza Strip resident Hussein Qahwaji tried to immolate himself in an attempt to call attention to his financial troubles. Palestinian police said at the time that the man had wanted the Palestinian Authority to pay for a trip to his 5-year-old sick daughter in Jordan. Growing protests across the West Bank prompted the Fayyad's government and leaders of Palestinian factions to meet and discuss ways of easing the economic hardships. Fayyad was forced to lower VAT and fuel prices. For months, the Palestinian premier has warned of financial woes due to a chronic shortfall in financial support pledged by donors. The PA has been unable to pay regularly for its 154,000 civil and military employees and public protests erupted in the West Bank against the rising prices. The PA allocates 48 percent of its budget to the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by rival Hamas movement, and barely gets any tax revenues in return. The Palestinian leadership believes that the current crisis is a reflection of a political crisis related to increasing the pressure on the Palestinians to agree to resume the stalling peace process. On Wednesday, the World Bank urged the donor countries to pledge $400 million to save the Palestinian Authority (PA) from its deepening financial crisis. The World Bank said in a report that the PA is projected to have a $1.5 billion deficit by the end of 2012, for which only $1.1 b. has been raised from donor countries. The report will be presented to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), a forum of donors to the PA, who will meet in New York on September 23. It warned that the PA will face severe budget crisis if the money is not found. Mariam Sherman, the World Bank Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza, said that “donors do need to act urgently in the face of a serious fiscal crisis facing the PA in the short term." “But even with this financial support, sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved without a removal of the barriers preventing private sector development, particularly in Area C," she said.
