A report carried in the local media estimates that the once-thriving footwear industry in the Palestinian Territories has contracted by as much as 70% in the two years since the Intifada (uprising) began.

In the main industrial city of Hebron, which has been under almost continuous Israeli military control since April, employment in the sector has plummeted from around 10,000 two years ago to around 3,000.  The lack of a stable government, the absence of effective import restrictions, the disintegration of the local infrastructure and the imposition of curfews are the main reasons cited.

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