Palestinian Authority in Danger

Palestinian Authority in danger of collapse, says World Bank

Charles Levinson
AFP
May 9, 2006

Middle East Times

JERUSALEM -- The donor-starved Palestinian Authority (PA) may cease to function if government employees continue to go without salaries for much longer, the World Bank warned in a new report released on Monday.

Civil servants will simply down tools and discipline in the ranks of the security services could well collapse if pay checks, which have not arrived for the last two months, are not forthcoming, the Washington-based body said.

The European Union and United States have both frozen aid payments to the PA since the radical Islamist movement Hamas took power over its refusal to renounce the use of violence or accept Israel's right to exist.

Israel has also stopped handing over customs duties that it used to collect on behalf of the PA, worth around $60 million a month.

Although Muslim countries have pledged tens of millions in a bid to plug the gap, the funds have yet to be transferred with banks wary of falling foul of international laws that prohibit the financing of terrorist organizations. Hamas appears on US and EU terror blacklists.

A previous report by the World Bank last month had warned that the Palestinian economy would experience a dramatic decline with incomes decreasing by 30 percent and unemployment doubling by the end of the year.

But even those dire projections "now appear too rosy", the new survey said.

"If the PA remains unpaid/minimally paid for several months, it may cease to function," the report said.

Institutional breakdown could undermine years of good work in a matter of weeks and prove extremely hard to rectify.

"Complex structures such as school systems are not machines to be switched on and off at will," the report said. "A protracted period in which the PA is disabled might result in the unraveling of a dozen years of donor efforts to build the responsible, accountable institutions needed for a future Palestinian state or for continued governance."

The World Bank said that there was already evidence that the security forces were prepared to take the law into their own hands in order to force the authorities to hand over cash.

"Non-payment, part-payment or unequal payment of salaries could precipitate breakdowns in force discipline in the security services," said the report. "A deteriorating security environment could make it difficult for government, commerce and relief efforts alike to operate properly."

The report reiterated warnings from the UN and aid organizations that a humanitarian crisis loomed in the Palestinian territories.

It said that food and gasoline shortages are already emerging in Gaza as a result of prolonged Israeli enforced border closings.

With more than 160,000 on the government payroll, one in three Palestinians is dependent on state salaries.

"We agree with the World Bank," said Palestinian planning minister Samir Abu Eisheh. "If we don't get money soon we face a real disaster."

PA President Mahmoud Abbas also called for the resumption of aid to the government in a letter on Monday to the Middle East quartet that comprises Russia, the United Nations, United States and European Union.

"The payment of aid and financial support for the Palestinian Authority should resume in order to avoid a real humanitarian crisis," the moderate Abbas was quoted as saying in letter.

Israel has called claims of a humanitarian disaster exaggerated but the World Bank said that Israel risked becoming the target of Palestinian anger as the plight of citizens in the West Bank and Gaza became ever harder.

"The dominant popular response to intense economic pressure in 2001-2 was anger at Israel as the perceived agent of economic distress not rejection of the violence that Israel was acting to prevent," it said.


Editorial:

Democracy in Action

by Housewife4Palestine

Free and equal representation of people: the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government, often practiced by electing representatives of the people by the people “Democracy is like the experience of life itself – always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested for adversity.”

Jimmy Carter Speech to Parliament of India June 2, 1978

Israel and the United States hollers all the time how they are a Democratic governments for the people, which they are proving that what they keep preaching is seriously in question.

Mr. Bush has padded himself on his back about the Iraqi elections until, in my view his arm should be broken by now. And by what I see with the electoral treatment of the new governing body in Palestine, I find that the United States and Israel’s view of said democracy is nothing but a leaking bucket that only is acceptable if they say so. They question a resistance group being put into office, by saying they are terrorist. I find this ironically funny coming from the real terrorist regimes.

I for one wish the two groups who scream democracy stop preaching what they do not believe themselves. Especially, Mr. Bush because it has always been a big question to the fact of his election into the presidency coming not by the front door, but by the kitchen entrance.

To break a real elected government is nothing but dirty politics. As for recognizing Israel, after doing something like this to a legalized government; Israel can go spit! The real thing to look at now is who is throwing the big rocks, it certainly isn’t the Palestinians?


Saudi Warns Against Isolating Hamas

Envoy Says U.S. Will Release 16 Guantanamo Detainees

By Glenn Kessler

Washington Post Staff Writer

May 18, 2006

The Bush administration's policy of isolating the Hamas-led Palestinian government is based on a "twisted logic" that will end up only radicalizing the Palestinian population against a peaceful solution, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said yesterday.

Separately, Saud said the United States would release 16 Saudi citizens from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this week and return them to Saudi Arabia for possible trial and incarceration. Only nine of the 136 Saudi detainees have been released since 2003, and these appear to be the first that will be subject to the Saudi justice system.

Saud, who has served as foreign minister since 1975, made his remarks in a meeting with a small group of reporters in Washington on the eve of a regular meeting, known as a "strategic dialogue," held by the two countries' foreign ministers.

The State Department has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. The United States has refused to deal with much of the Palestinian government or provide direct aid since Hamas won legislative elections in January and then took charge of most of the government.

The United States and the European Union have demanded that Hamas recognize Israel and meet other conditions before aid is restored, though in recent weeks the Europeans have pressed for some mechanism to provide assistance that would bypass government institutions controlled by Hamas.

Palestinian government salaries have not been paid for two months because of the aid freeze -- and because banks are reluctant to transfer Arab League funds to the Palestinian Authority for fear of running afoul of U.S. Treasury regulations. "You are not harming the government," Saud said. "You are only adding radicalism to the Palestinians."

Saud said that based on his discussions with Hamas leaders, a policy of "inclusion" and dialogue would yield a change in the Hamas position toward Israel but isolation would backfire. "We are arguing the point, needless to say, with them strenuously," he said, referring to U.S. officials.

"If you use inclusion, rather than exclusion, if you talk to them, they can be convinced of the advisability of pursuing the peace process, if they are assured of equal treatment" and not a bias toward Israel, Saud said.

"You are dissatisfied with the results of the election which brought Hamas government," Saud added. "Of course we always warned against elections, that sometimes they bring results that you don't want. That's why we haven't applied the system yet in Saudi Arabia."

Saud also warned that the "convergence plan" advanced by recently elected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert holds the seeds for further turmoil. Olmert is coming to Washington next week intending to pitch President Bush and other U.S. officials on his idea of unilaterally withdrawing from much of the West Bank.

Rather than convergence, he said, "I would rather call it a policy of diversion -- trying to divert, move away from the vision of a two-state solution living peacefully together . . . moving away from the basics of the peace process."

Regarding the Saudi detainees, Saud indicated there had been long and difficult negotiations that had led to their release. "It took us how many years to get them back?" Saud said. "It hasn't been easy."

Some U.S. officials have expressed concern about releasing prisoners to Saudi Arabia because of allegations of torture and prisoner abuse there. Five Saudis were released in 2003 as part of a complicated agreement involving the release of Britons in Saudi jails, and another four have been released and were immediately freed.

Saud said these detainees would be tried under Saudi law if there was enough evidence to warrant a trial. "We will see what the proof against them is," he said. "If the proof justifies a trial, they will be put on trial."

Saud said the transfer would take place in the next two days. A military spokesman declined to confirm the prisoner release, saying such transfers are announced only when they are completed.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.