Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/20
In Pictures: Weather extremes 2013
In Pictures: The Israeli separation barrier: A West Bank wall
In Pictures: Derby Day devotees, Kenyan style
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/16
In Pictures: Dazzle like Beckham
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/15
In Pictures: Duchess Kate's royal baby bump
A Palestinian vendor displays shoes on a car in the middle of the market in the city of Nablus, West Bank, on Aug. 18, 2012. Traditionally Muslims buy new clothes and shoes for the Eid al-Fitr, which is the culmination of the month-long period of fasting during which practicing Muslims around the world abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk. Nasser Ishtayeh/AP
A Palestinian woman walks past parked taxis blocking a road during a protest against the high cost of living in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sept. 10, 2012. Nasser Ishtayeh/AP
The West Bank city of Ramallah at night on Sept. 3, 2012. The Palestinian Authority, the cash-strapped government of the occupied West Bank, is so behind on its bills that an Israeli electricity supplier has threatened to cut the power. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Israeli border policemen guard as Palestinian women cross at Qalandiya checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah on Aug. 3, 2012. Baz Ratner/Reuters
A salesman watches as a Palestinian woman sits inside a BMW for sale at a car dealership in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 20, 2012. Past the Israeli sentry towers blackened by firebombs and the entrance to a refugee camp emblazoned with posters of rifle-clenching militants, downtown Ramallah sparkles. Ammar Awad/Reuters
Palestinian women sit together at a newly opened upscale Italian cafe in the West Bank city of Ramallah on July 3, 2012. Ammar Awad/Reuters
A Palestinian woman and children walk in front of solar panels in the Al-Thala community, north of the West Bank city of Hebron. Electricity from solar panels and wind turbines has revolutionized life in Palestinian herding communities that Israel won't connect to the grid: machines instead of sticks churn goat milk into butter, refrigerators store food that used to spoil, and children no longer have to hurry to get their homework done before dark. Majdi Mohammed/AP
Palestinian police use shields to protect themselves from stones thrown by Palestinian demonstrators during a protest near the municipality building in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sept. 10, 2012. Palestinian demonstrators fed up with high prices and unpaid salaries shuttered shops, halted traffic with burning tires, and closed schools throughout the West Bank today in the largest show of popular discontent with the governing Palestinian Authority in its 18-year history. Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP
Palestinian girls run under power lines in Jalazoun refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sept. 3, 2012. Electricity will be soon cut off unless the PA pays off its outstanding debt of almost $80 million to an Israeli provider. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Palestinians shop at a market in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Sept. 4, 2012. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Palestinian girls take part in a ballet class at the Ramallah Ballet Center in the West Bank city of Ramallah on July 11, 2012. The center is the first in the occupied West Bank. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
A worker at a Palestinian drug import company prays at the company's warehouse in the West Bank city of Ramallah. A cash crunch, mainly due to a sharp drop in foreign aid since 2011, is threatening to set off a chain reaction of business failures, layoffs, and economic downturn that would undermine one of the West's fundamental strategies toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP
A Palestinian woman picks prickly pears in the West Bank village of Budrus near Ramallah on July 15, 2012. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Palestinian riders compete in a horse race near the West Bank city of Jenin on July 13, 2012. Mohammed Ballas/AP
Palestinian farmer Abd Allah Atatreh wears protective gear as he lifts a frame of honeycomb out of a beehive while harvesting honey in the West Bank village of Yabad, near Jenin, on June 6, 2011. Mohammed Ballas/AP
Maysoun Odeh Gangat, the founder and CEO of NISAA FM, one of Ramallah's top five radio stations, works at the station's studio in the West Bank city of Ramallah on July 10, 2012. NISAA FM radio station, set up by and for women, took to the airwaves in 2010. It highlights local success stories about anything from female-led investment groups to refugee camp microfinance projects. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Houses and apartment buildings under construction are seen in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 14, 2012. Growth in the West Bank is concentrated in Ramallah and in real estate and services, even as many sectors, like agriculture and construction, languish. Ammar Awad/Reuters
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/20
In Pictures: Weather extremes 2013
In Pictures: The Israeli separation barrier: A West Bank wall
In Pictures: Derby Day devotees, Kenyan style
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/16
In Pictures: Dazzle like Beckham
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/15
In Pictures: Duchess Kate's royal baby bump
With food insecurity soaring and GDP declining, Palestinians in the West Bank are waking up to the fact that their foreign aid dependent economy is unsustainable.
Luay Abdel Rafah was unconcerned with President Obama’s visit to nearby Bethlehem last Friday, or by the announcement that the United States would unblock $500 million in US funds for the Palestinian government. He was busy tending to the last organic radish, onion, and lettuce crops of the season in a rooftop permaculture garden above the congested Dheisheh Refugee Camp.
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