"Currently Palestine has the highest unemployment rate," Indonesian Labor Minister Hanif Dhakiri said at a meeting of the Labor Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement countries attended by ILO Director General Guy Ryder in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday.
Hanif said Israel has restricted the activities of Palestinian workers and business people in the occupied West Bank resulting in loss of jobs for many Palestinian workers.
He said Indonesia, the world`s largest Muslim country shares the problem faced by the Palestinians.
The Indonesian Government will continue to support the Palestinian struggle to end the Israeli occupation of their land and to develop its economy, he said.
In the same forum, Director General of Labor Supervision Sugeng Priyanto said ILO should contribute to calling for international support for Palestine.
Indonesia was very concerned with the report by ILO about the condition of workers in the occupied West Bank, Sugeng said.
"We call on member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement to jointly urge ILO to help raise fund for Palestine Fund for Employment and Social Protection," he said.
Hasan Kleib, Indonesian Ambassador to the United Nations, WTO and other International Organizations in Geneva said that ILO Director General regularly every year published report of labor condition in the occupied Arab lands including Palestine.
The report has become reference of discussion at the International Labor Conference in Geneva.
Hasan Kleib said ILO recorded that blockade of Gaza by Israel has worsened the economic condition of that territory, adding unemployment rate in Palestine has risen to around 50 percent.
The meeting of the labor ministers of the member countries of the Non-aligned Movement in Geneva accepted a declaration about labor condition in the Israeli occupied West Bank territory of Palestine.
The declaration reaffirmed support of the non-aligned movement for the struggle of Palestine to regain full independence and expressed concern with labor and economic condition in that territory.
Reporter: antara
Editor: Andi Abdussalam
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