On Wednesday the 5th of December about midnight, the Israeli tanks were snarling their engines after occupying parts from Area A in Ramallah in the vicinity of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. That night the PCBS was a target, see photo 1
Group of Israeli soldiers, backed with tanks and armored vehicles stormed the Palestinian central bureau of statistics (PCBS), one of the most prominent scientific Palestinian research institutes in Ramallah. Since it was founded in 1993, the PCBS has disseminated key statistics needed for reconstruction and development by the assistance of donor countries. Some of the statistics produced by the bureau are about population and demographic patterns, socioeconomic conditions of the country, and statistics on land use and the environment, see photo 2
Several international fund institutes, including European countries such as Germany, Sweden and Switzerland have funded the PCBS, which in return has been very helpful in providing raw data on various sectors of the Palestinian economy and social structure. European sponsors continued their financial support of the bureau during the Intifada and closure, realizing the importance of the work of the PCBS- an integral institution within the Palestinian professional organizational network. Click to read about the PSBC web site.
The Israeli forces moved into the building on December 5th to damage and confiscate computerized-saved-data as well as those found in hard copies and compact disks. Israeli forces claimed that these materials contained information that proved the Palestinian Authority's ''involvement in terrorist activities''.
Doors were broken, windows were shattered and the offices were left in a jumble. Two lockers were completely damaged and evacuated and computer networks were rendered out of order. Losses are estimated at around one million dollars. See photo 3 & photo 4
It seems like the sole purpose of such a storm is to hit the Palestinian institutional foundation in order to weaken the prospects of establishing a viable Palestinian state, under the pretext of Israeli security.
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Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
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