Poverty in Palestine and its Policy Resisting Study case (Jenin Governorate)

The current study dealt with the problem 0f poverty in Palestine and the strategies to face this phenomenon and find the way for adaptation with poverty and difficult economic situation among the inhabitance 0f Jenin district. The study population consiste of168 families selected randomly from the city of Jenin, its refugee camp and the villages of the district to achieve our aims, a specially designed questionnaire was used and included question related to income and ways for adaptation and copping with such hard economic situation by the families. Data were then collected and analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The following summarizes the main finding: 1. the result of the current study showed that 95.8% of the study population managed to cope with the hard economic situation through the reduction of consumption. 2. Aid provided by both governmental and nongovernmental organization substituted only 21% 0f the total financial requirements of poor families. 3. A significant decrease in monthly income of the studied families was found (from a mean of around 900 NIS before the Intifada to 117 after). 4. Most of the programs directed towards creating job opportunity for the poor were not well organized and 79% of these families did not get any help through such programs. 5. An increased income was associated with the level of educational level and years of experience of the head of the family. 6. A noticeable low level of education was observed among females compared to males among the study population (mean of 3.57 years for female compared to 6.8 years of study for male). 7. 88.7% of the study population believed that corruption in the various institutes is the reason behind their bad current economic situation. 8. 82.7% of the study population believes that Palestine authority has no active role in fighting poverty among poor families