Since the establishment of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed approximately $5 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid.
Overall, Palestinians receive approximately $2 billion in aid each year.
Palestinian economic analysts estimate that the PA has received a total of $25 billion in financial aid during the past two decades
The CIA World Factbook reported the poverty rate in the West Bank as 18% in 2011,20 in contrast to Israel’s poverty rate in 2012 of 21%.
In 2015, life expectancy in the West Bank was 76 years. This was notably higher than the life expectancy in Arab states of 71 years (in 2012), and the average life expectancy around the world of 70 years.
In 2015, the infant mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza was 13 per 1,000 live births,24 compared with 27 per 1,000 live births in the Arab states in 2013 and 36.58 per 1,000 live births in the world in 2014.
According to the 2012 Happy Planet Index – a survey conducted by the New Economics Forum to measure happiness around the world – the Palestinian Authority was the third happiest Arab country and the 30th happiest in the world, making the PA happier than many developed countries like the U.S., UK, Sweden, Australia and Canada.
From the essay- unexpected photos from the West bank
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| The Nablus Mall |
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| The Tuqan Building in Nablus |
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| Sky Land Park in Ramallah |
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| The Caesar Hotel, Ramallah |
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