Why has Europe begun to question its role in the Palestinian financial system?

recent diplomatic conference highlighted the problems of the Palestinian economy; strikescorruptionhigh unemployment, and more. The event was hosted in Prague and since  1991, the European Union – through its taxpayers – has been arguably the principal monetary supporter of the Palestinian territories, directly and through organization such as UNRWA.

The flow of these billions is set to continue, at least to the end of the decade. Yet throughout this period, there have always been three key ‘misfits’, enveloping these subsidies.

  1. Why has the Palestinian cause earned such large fiscal attention, when others in Africa and elsewhere have missed out? It is a decade ago since Nigel Roberts, former ranking World Bank representative in the region surmised global financial support for Palestinians as “the highest per capita aid transfer in the history of foreign aid anywhere”.
  2. Why has the Arab League, for all its wealth, never matched the contributions of the Europeans?
  3. Why is Palestinian poverty highlighted and blamed solely on the Israelis, when a World Bank report noted that the Palestinian economy grew under Israeli control by 5.5% annually up to 1999? That is a phenomenal performance, absolutely and relatively.

Something does not add up.

Back in 2003, the European Union investigated claims of fraudulent use of its resources by the Palestinians. The report under Christopher Patten was never released. (Interestingly, Patten went on to run the BBC and was famed for burying reports there). In parallel, The Funding for Peace Coalition was active for many years on these same issues. As the website poses: Where has all this money disappeared to?

These are contribution paid for by farmers in Greece, small businesses in Germany or even the owner of a pub in Putney, London What has been achieved through their generosity? Specifically, as Alarabiya News questioned regarding Suha Arafat, how did the wife of the former Palestinian Chairman amass such wealth? Should people be concerned? I believe so and for three separate reasons:

First, it is an issue of good governance. A taxpayer expects his representative to take responsibility. He has a fundamental right to know where his money ends up and that it is for a reasonable purpose. It is difficult to find any other subject, where such sums – billions – were and still are transferred with relatively little transparency and accountability.

Second, as reported above, there are a lot of poor Palestinians. No argument. They deserve better. It is staggering to consider that the financial transfers from the European Union have not made a more lasting and significant positive contribution on the Palestinian economy. It is even more amazing when you compare this failure to the World Bank analysis, noted above, about how the economy had previously leapt forward when Israel had full control of the territories.

Third, there is considerable evidence, which suggests that not only have funds been diverted for the benefit of an autocracy, both in Hamas and in the Palestinian Authority. Monies have ended up in the hands of terrorists. As admitted in the House of Commons in London, by a minister at the Foreign Office, Mr Hugh Robertson, “UK officials raised the issue of payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails with the Palestinian Authority (PA) most recently in March 2014. The International Development Committee also received information on this issue from the Minister of Finance during their visit in March.” In the same vein and possibly even more bewildering was the question raised in the European Parliament by Michal Kaminski.

It is a well-known fact that the Palestinian Authority proudly owns up to illegally spending over 6% of its budget — donated by, among others, the EU, where funding terrorism is against the law — on salaries for terrorists in Israeli prisons and pensions for the families of suicide bombers. The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister, Issa Qarake, has admitted on television that the salaries are directly proportional to the terrorists’ sentences and the number of Jews they have killed……What is the Commission’s strategy to stop EU funds being used to pay salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons?

And the response:

The EU is aware that the Palestinian Authority has a system of allowances in place for Palestinian prisoners, their families and ex-detainees. This scheme is not and has never been financed by the EU.

Maybe………..BUT how did the PA have enough money in the first place to distribute such payments?

For the record, there is also growing disapproval of some of the actions of UNRWA, to which Europe pays hundreds of millions of Euros annually. Not only does this billion dollar organisation have no external auditing procedures. It prints and distributes textbooks in its schools that appear to promote violent incitement against Israelis.

So where to now? The current round of peace talks is precariously balanced. The Palestinians are fuming about the non-release of terrorists by Israelis. In turn, Jerusalem feels that President Abbas has deliberately instigated the crisis, just like at the beginning of the Intifada in 2000. In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu is forcing the Ramallah government to pay up on extensive debts, which sounds ironic in light of the above discussion.

There is some hope. On the ground, individual Palestinian entrepreneurs are trying to work with Israelis. And Israel is actively seeking to open up commerce for its Arab population. It is also very welcome to see the read of the approach of Michael Theurer, chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he observed how in December 2013,”the European Court of Auditors revealed major dysfunctions in the management of EU financial support to the Palestinian Authority, and called for a serious overhaul of the funding mechanism.” He continued:

The report from the European Court of Auditors is a wake-up call on the need for stricter supervision of how EU funding to the Palestinian Authority is spent……A useful next step would be the imposition of clear benchmarks and conditions that the Palestinian Authority would have to meet in order to receive additional EU funds. These should include improving the state of human rights in the West Bank, cracking down on corruption and cutting off subsidies to convicted Palestinian terrorists.

Until then? The sad fact is that as long as Palestinian and European decision makers remain safely ensconced on their hilltops in Ramallah and in Brussels, Palestinian and Israeli civilians alike will continue to suffer, as will the bank accounts of European taxpayers.

When I looked up the word “sanctions”, I had to agree that it is time to sanction the Israeli economy. Two of the definitions imply bringing penalties in order to force a country to comply with a specific issue.

The Palestinian-based BDS movement campaigns for “calls for action against projects and initiatives which amount to recognition of or cooperation with Israel’s regime of apartheid…” This includes banks divesting from Israel, rock stars like Elvis Costello cancelling performances, and US basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cancelling a scheduled public visit to Israel.

An outspoken supporter of BDS is the international charity Oxfam, which refuses to help Israeli children. Hollywood star Scarlett Johannson has campaigned actively on behalf of Oxfam. When she recently promoted at the Superbowl the Israeli firm, SodaStream, which is partially located in the West Bank, Oxfam was furious.

However, as social commentator Melanie Philips pointed out:

Ms Johansson stunned everyone by sacking Oxfam, on the grounds that she was a supporter of “economic co-operation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine”. Which, by implication, Oxfam was not.

As Phillips indicated, Johannson had in effect initiated her own sanctions. However, and more importantly, she had invoked the other definition of sanctions: authoritative permission or approval”.

What Johansson was saying is that Israel’s economy deserves a huge ‘thumbs up’ from the rest of the world. Here are some examples why:

1) Even the Director of Policy for Oxfam had to admit on the BBC that Palestinians at the SodaStream factory are treated fairly.

2) Israel has taken major steps in recent years to ensure that minorities are a full part of the country’s successful high-tech bandwagon.

3) Israel does not keep its capabilities to itself, but shares them with the stricken and crippled. Classic case studies include the ongoing support in the Philippines and the treatment of Syrian refuges.

4) Without Israeli technology, millions around the world would be worse off – physically, financially, and socially.

BDS’s use of the word ‘sanction’ is at best hypocritical, as rappers have pointed out. When it involves academics insisting that Israeli research should be ignored, it invokes images of Kristallnacht in 1938.

Significantly, BDS is a secret movement. There are few records of senior staff, financial structure, donors, records of board members, etc. While demanding transparency and accountability from Israel, it refuses to play by the same rules.

The only person that we really know is running it is Omar Barghouti, who flouted his own standards and studied at Tel Aviv University. He does not accept Israel’s right to exist.

Last week, a court in Gaza sentenced a man to death; execution. Although condemned by the EU, the BDS team was silent on this gross abuse of human rights. Therefore, as is their cause, they sanctioned it.

Palestinians have long blamed Israel and the ‘occupation’ for its economic woes.  For example, using selective quotes from the World Bank, they cite that if Israel ended its restrictions on Palestinian businesses and farms operating in “Area C” – 61 percent of the occupied West Bank – “this would add as much as 35 percent to the Palestinian GDP.”

And yet, as I have pointed out several times, until the Intifada, the World Bank had also observed how the Palestinians had one of the fastest growing economies on the global map. So where do we go from here?

Palestinian news agencies will seemingly report with near glee how their economy is in trouble. Strikes, not enough money to pay for the ever- growing number of civil servants, extreme weather, etc are just some of the disaster stories. There are a few bright spots, such as possible gas exploration and fleeting high-tech successes.

What some supporters of Israel may find surprising is that it has been the EU that recently pointed a way forward for the Palestinian economy. Now remember, depending on how you calculate it, the EU, directly, through member countries and through UNRWA etc contributes over one billion dollars annually to the Palestinians. As reported by Al Jazeera, “European officials recently warned the Palestinians that European countries were suffering from “donor fatigue” after spending billions of dollars in aid with limited results in achieving a lasting peace with the Israelis.”

Over what is written in the article,there is a greater concern, that of corruption. Evidently, the EU is concerned that billions has been ‘lost’ in the system. This was confirmed by a senior research assistant at Chatham House, a leading research institute in London. Entitled “Middle East peace – it’s not the economy stupid”, the paper considers that:

Corruption and inequality in the Palestinian territories are a significant factor behind public scepticism and cynicism about economic plans. Palestinians are well aware of corruption in business, and their negative views are exacerbated by socioeconomic divisions.

These “self-inflicted wounds” to borrow another commentator’s phrase simply damage the hopes and aspirations of Palestinians, who deserve better. The culture of corruption that was allowed and encouraged and utilized by Chairman Arafat continues way beyond his death.

Al-Shabaka is an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and self-determination within the framework of international law.” It argued in a research paper  how “while most Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are struggling to survive, a powerful group of Palestinian capitalists is thriving and growing in political, economic, and social influence.”

The report provides examples of the retail, banking and building sectors, where Palestinian capitalists have made huge profits. the centralization of economic power has come at the expense of millions, who are left to complain about the exploitation by Israelis. This is ironic in a week, when a leading official of Oxfam, one of England’s leading charities, called for Palestinians to stop working in Israeli factories, even though they earn much better wages there.

There is another route. The Israeli government has made great efforts in recent years to ensure that venture capital is increasingly available for the minority sector. Is it enough? Probably not? Does this provide an excellent start, leading to jobs and the creation of wealth for more? Seemingly so.

Effectively, what the EU and Al Shakaba are asking is: If only the Palestinian leadership had been able to demonstrate better financial leadership over decades, how much better off would millions of people have become today? And how would that have impacted on the peace process?

Some readers often ask me why I do not write specifically about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In response I explain how there are so many bloggers already out there, each with their own agenda. Another one will not make a difference.

That said, just recently, I have come across a series of financial and social issues that are out of the ordinary – certainly, unexpected – and deserve wider review.

1) Investing in Palestine: As the UN Assembly meets and President Abbas implores the world to support his cause against Israel, I recently questioned who is actually investing in the emerging Palestinian economy. The bottom line is that the Arab block, who Abbas says wants to recognise Israel, transfers relatively few funds towards its favourite political project. Most of Ramallah’s joint ventures are with ……Israel.

2) Israel’s economy and the global recession: At a time when America is struggling to maintain its economic momentum and the UK may finally be seeing an initial emergence from a deep recession, Israel’s finances appear to be under control. The stock market  is beginning to perform and public expenditure is finally in check. Growth predictions for 2014 have been raised to 3.4%.

3) The level of aid for the Palestinian economy: It is well established that the Palestinian economy is bolstered by aid received from large international agencies. One recent report calculates that “the Palestinian people, have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall plan after the Second World War.” Much comes via UNRWA’s near US$1,000 million annual budget, a self-perpetuating black hole of Western taxpayer largesse.

4) The main beneficiaries of Israeli Arabic health care: About six months ago, Israel’s largest health fund released a series of training videos in Arabic for the local market. Over 90% of the million plus views have been registered to countries with no official relations with the Holy Land. So much a for a boycott of the Jewish state.

5) The main beneficiaries of Palestinian justice system: Amnesty International (AI) has just released a report condemning the Palestinian Authority (PA) for not allowing free political demonstrations. It is only a month since AI condemned Hamas in Gaza for its frequent use of executions, a horror confirmed by the BBC. When one considers that the Palestinian Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling has documented 25 honour killings so far in 2013, it has to be asked: Why does the Palestinian system demand political and social justice from Israel but does not apply the same principles for its own people?

6) What Egypt and Syria are teaching others:   The Arab Spring, the revolting pictures emerging from Syria, the Islamic-Marxist rule in Iran and more have challenged a vital core part of Western thinking for decades. Until now, it was accepted that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the main core of distress in the region. Clearly, it is becoming evident that pressuring Israel into a peace deal will not bring overall peace to the Middle East. Well done Assad and co for highlighting the unspeakable.

7) Not worth visiting? So with all these trouble points and instability, who would visit Israel today? Well for the first eight months of 2013, 2.13 million tourists were recorded. That figure continues the upward record trend over the past three years.

However you look at it, the Palestinian economy is not very strong. It is easy and convenient for outsiders to hoist the blame on Israel. And whenever a Palestinian leader meets a Western counterpart, the resulting press release almost always refers to a request for foreign aid.

I have often tested the fallacy of this argument by citing an IMF report that shows how under Israeli rule, the joint economies of Gaza and the West Bank were one of the best performers from 1968 to 2000 – 5.5% per annum on average. It now appears that there is a second fallacy. Despite popular belief, while Europeans pour their taxpayers money into the Palestinian economy, there is a relatively poor parallel response from members of the Arab League.

My starting point is a comment reposted on the LinkedIn page of the ‘Economist’ magazine. According to a Malaysian expert, Prof. M. Aslam Haneef,  “The total amount of charities and gifts that are coming from the Muslim world is 15 times more than the total of the UN aid package.” A bold statement, which I am not able to challenge.

And then I read a commentary from the Gladstone Institute. Mainly through UNRWA, yes a UN body, “the Palestinian people have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe after the Second World War.” UNRWA’s budget in 2012 exceeded a staggering US$900 billion.

The USA, EU, UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan pay $644,701,999, or 71% of the annual UNRWA budget.

So where do the Muslim states rank? First in, at #15, is Saudi Arabia. The land of palaces and private gold leaf painted Airbus A380’s on the Royal runways chipped in $12,030,540 — less than half of a tiny country such as the Netherlands. Second, at #18, is Turkey, the supposedly economically flourishing state of a prime minister who zealously supports Hamas, but which contributes only $8,100,000. Qatar, which stands accused of paying millions in bribes to win the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, and is now spending millions on the construction of high end soccer stadiums, contributed exactly $0 to its Palestinian brothers in faith.

Seeking to move beyond the sarcasm, I checked out the ‘economy page‘ of the Ma’an News Agency, based in Ramallah. Of the twelve leading items, six refer to pleas for overseas aid. Of these, only one connects to an Arab source, a Saudi contribution ‘to develop sewage refineries’ (sic), while the rest are the USA, EU and…..well the story begins to repeat itself.

In the private sector, the situation is not much different. One of the few genuine venture capital groups in Ramallah is Sadara, which recently raised US$30 million. From whom? “Google, the investment fund of George Soros, the European Investment Bank, the Skoll Foundation and the Case Foundation. The software giant Cisco has invested $5 million.” Again, no prizes for observing who is not listed.

The Palestinians need financial help. No argument. Assumedly, they would reap greater rewards from current donors if they could improve their transparency and accountability. Meanwhile, you have to ask, what is it that the Arab block knows, which forces it not to invest in the Palestinian economy?

I was in Tiberias this Saturday night, walking along the edge of the Sea of Galilee. As I strolled down to the sea front, past the Scottish Hotel, owned by the Church of Scotland, the crowds were deafening. Jews mixed with Druze, who mixed with Moslems, along with the foreign tourists. All were customers and waiters at the multitude of restaurants on the thriving promenade.

And while thousands of Israelis were partying, American Secretary of State, John Kerry, was on the warpath. He is pulling out all the stops to reignite peace talks – at least, talks about talks – between Israelis and Palestinians.

Depending on whose spin you believe: Either the Israelis are not serious, because they keep building or enlarging so-called settlements. Or the Palestinians have shown less than a minimalistic level of commitment by bombing tourists in Eilat. UN experts have shown revealed their position by criticising Israel for its supposed harassment of a Palestinian human rights’ activist.

All this comes on a day, when Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners, as a gesture of good will. Judging from the record of the former inmates, Israel was forced into this move by Kerry. Tom Gross, an experienced journalist covering the region, has noted that:

  • Abu-Musa Salam Ali Atia of Fatah  hacked to death  Holocaust survivor, using an axe in broad daylight.
  • Ra’ai Ibrahim Salam Ali of Fatah killed a pensioner by axe blows to the head while he sat on a public bench reading a book.
  • Two of the prisoners, Abu Satta Ahmad Sa’id Aladdin and Abu Sita Talab Mahmad Ayman, were imprisoned in 1994 for the murder of David Dadi and Haim Weizman. They killed Dadi and Weizman as they slept in Weizman’s apartment, and then cut off their ears as trophies.

And so the list goes on. You have to ask. Why would Palestinian President Abbas want such people released into his society? Why give them a heroes welcome? And why has there been no reciprocal move to show to Israelis and the peace brokers how serious the Palestinians are about peace?

What the process is showing is that while Israel, and specifically her Prime Minister Netanyahu, are not liked by parts of the international diplomatic community, their complaints do not stand up to realities on the ground. It is not just that citizens of different religions mix freely on the streets in the Holy Land, Israel goes out of its way to help others. For example, dozens of Syrians have now been treated in Israeli hospitals as a result of fighting on their own soil.

In contrast, as Palestinian journalist Abu Toameh records, “while Palestinians are being slaughtered and forced out of their homes in Syria, the Lebanese government is preventing them from entering Lebanon.” And in Gaza, the planned executions of named traitors has even attracted the disgust of the British government, as well as the UN and Amnesty International.

There are no simple paths along the journey towards peace. This was best illustrated by a recent and amazingly frank appraisal by an outgoing member of the Spokesperson’s Unit of the Israeli army.

However, I would like to take one step further what the Wall Street Journal wrote. “What does it say about a prospective state of Palestine that among its heroes is Salah Ibrahim Ahmad Mugdad?“, who beat a 72 year old security guard to death with a steel rod. When Abbas and co are prepared to find a new type of hero, one that Israeli society can relate to, than Kerry’s efforts will have a far deeper meaning.

Earlier this week I questioned if the potential of increased economic wealth for the Palestinians is a priority for their own leadership during the peace process, which has made a solid start.

The issue is not the scope and vast potential of the Palestinian economy. As one person remarked – only half in jest – that it is possible to predict how Hamas and Fatah will go to arms; not over the role of religion but over who will control the revenues from energy reserves off the Gaza coast.

“Where is the money” has always been a sensitive issue amongst the Palestinian elite. This issue of financial responsibility and transparency is barely discussed openly, if not censored. However with a large dose of ironical timing, Mohammed Dahlan, the former head of the Palestinian internal security services in Gaza, has just accused the Palestinian Authority of being a corrupt institution under Abbas’s thumb. And using an Israeli legal team, he is seeking to take his own President to an international tribunal.

Now Dahlan is no saint. Google long enough and you can discover how he rose to fame by controlling youth gangs in Gaza. Along the way, he secured for himself the rich cream off monopolies and perpetuated via the ‘tunnel economy’. Hamas ousted him from Gaza, and he left the West Bank two years ago in political disgrace, but wealthy.

What must be disappointing for the average Palestinian is that Dahlan is not alone in achieving financial security while his people endure 30% unemployment. Mrs Suha Arafat, wife of former Palestinian President, has probably visited every 6 Star hotel in Europe over the past few years, a lifestyle supported by some extra generous handouts. And as Al-Monitor reported:

The annual report for 2013 issued by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) showed that corruption is still rampant inside public Palestinian institutions…….Examples were given of public-fund squandering in Palestinian municipalities of the West Bank, where the total accumulated debt of municipalities and water-works agencies owed to the PA amounted to 1 billion Israeli shekels [$280 million] in the period between 1996 until 2012. Official vehicles were still being misappropriated by employees while suspicions grew concerning the running of Palestinian Airlines and the building of a mausoleum for the late President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

For the patient reader, detailed reports of misappropriation, lack of transparency and low accountability from 1993 to 2010 can be found at the website of the Funding for Peace Coalition.

What is so disturbing? The world is looking to create a stable peace treaty. Unfortunately, the same Palestinian hierarchy that has a self-vested interest in perpetuating the poverty that has been ramped up since 1993 (when Arafat returned to Gaza) are the very people surrounding President Abbas…… and condemned for corruption by senior Palestinians themselves.

So the Palestinians and the Israelis are due to meet today in Washington to begin talks about talks.

One of the issues that always annoys me is the way the Palestinian economy is reported and analysed. The standard retort is that the economy is in a mess – eg unemployment at over 25% – because of Israeli restrictions on the freedom of movement.

Well that specific stat is agreed upon by most sources. And it cannot be denied that Israeli security measures by definition must inhibit economic development. However, there is a flip side. For example, before the violence of the Intifada and up to 1999, the World Bank has stated that Palestinian economy grew by 5.5% annually for over two decades. And what about the implications of the violence on the Israeli side, which demands that resources are directed towards defence rather than structural growth?

So,let’s try to move away from the spin and the meaningless of politically correct statements. I often like to hear what Palestinians are saying about their own economy.

Last week, the Palestinian Monetary Authority released the latest figures on the state of the business environment. “In general, the overall index indicates that recovery in economic activity that took place during the past months of 2013 was back on the track in July, as a result of improvement in some industrial sectors such as food industries (index increased from 0.37 to 1.97) and furniture (from 0.24 to 1.75).”

The figures were especially encouraging for the West Bank region. It can be no coincidence that the Swedish furniture multinational, IKEA, has confirmed that it is holding discussions to open a new outlet in Ramallah in the coming year.

Despite the hypocritical howls of the BDS movement, cooperation with Israeli authorities continues. One notable example is the annual seminar held for farmers from Gaza. This year, around 50 people attended. Last month, a new industrial complex was inaugurated in Jericho with the open support of Israel, Jordan and Japan. And there is increasing speculation that discoveries of energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean and its forthcoming development will also bring the two sides together.

The down side at the moment for the Palestinian economy can be traced to events in Egypt. Seasoned Middle East observer Tom Gross cites a report from AP from 24th July. “Egypt’s new government has imposed the toughest border restrictions on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in years, sealing smuggling tunnels, blocking most passenger traffic and causing millions of dollars in economic losses.”

This was not a one-off comment. Egypt controls around 70% of the power supply into Gaza. And Al-Monitor headlined that Gaza fishermen can no longer ship out into Egyptian waters, which will have a clear negative impact on a major local industry. Gross observes these are blatant restrictions of economic movement, but there is no international outcry. Why?

So what does this all this mean for Mr Kerry has he brings the two sides together over a very wide negotiating table?

As these pictures illustrate (even if I do no agree with the flavour of the website), there are many aspects of affluence in the Palestinian territories. However, the population as a whole deserves better. And here’s the catch.

Instead of blaming Israel for their poverty, Palestinians can do more to resolve their own issues. A simple but obvious start would be to divert their limited resources from activities which generate hatred against Israel. They can be moved towards fostering internal structural growth for the civilian population.

The question remains if this potential of increased economic wealth for the Palestinians is a priority for their own leadership during the peace process?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Palestine witnessed remarkable growth of 5.9% during 2012, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in its report.

That is certainly progress for an economy that was set back for a decade by the Intifada. Accordingly, there are encouraging signs in multiple sectors. Government revenues have risen marginally.

In parallel, some international aid is having a positive impact. For example, last month the UK’s International Development Minister Alan Duncan announced to an audience of the Hebron Chamber of Commerce the details of a new £15 million Palestinian Market Development Programme. The previous grant had “helped hundreds of businesses turn over £80 million in sales and exports, enter 87 new export markets, develop 129 new products, create 3,400 jobs and increase their exports by 52%.”

That said, all is not rosy. Just look at the unemployment rate that seems pegged around 25%. With a young population, that raises ominous social questions for the immediate future and stability of any governing party in Gaza and in the West Bank. So here are two suggestions that should help to make a positive change and relatively quickly.

First, to paraphrase a detailed report from the International Monetary Fund, ‘better governance’ would make fundamental difference. In fact, the report makes for more depressing than the official Palestinian stats I have cited above.  The key recommendations are hidden on pages 17 and 18. While it no longer blames Israel for all the economic woes in the Palestinian territories, there is a demand for halting pay rises to a bloated public sector, implementing better tax revenue collection systems, and reducing capital outlays on dubious public sector projects.

However, second, in order for this to happen, the Palestinian people will need a leadership that is…….well, capable. Unfortunately, after weeks of internal haggling, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, resigned on April 24th. Texas-educated, IMF-trained and one of the few that was determined to introoduce transparency in the system, Fayyad had had enough.

According to some observers, Fayyad could see that the Palestinian economy under President Abbas may be heading for a dive. Not only has substantial donor aid from Arab countries effectively dried up. Just as pertinent is the fact that corruption and graft amongst the leaders in Ramallah and in Gaza have rarely seen better times.

An analysis prepared by a Gaza journalist, details how money is leaking out of the official Palestinian financial system, which lacks accountability . It is near unbelievable to read how “the report criticised the murkiness surrounding the PA’s security budget, which  accounts for nearly one third of the Palestinian public budget, because it was  comprised of only one figure, without details….”

The truly worrying aspect is when one links that statement with the policies of Western governments. Less than two weeks ago, on May 6th, the European Union released a further €20 million to help fund the payment of the April salaries and pensions of nearly 76,000 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Totally funding in this field has reached around €1.5 billion since 2008. If the corruption is so widespread, you have to ask what has European taxpayers money actually been spent on?

There are countless micro examples, which illustrate the lack of open government, at least from the point of view of Western standards. Even when the UN is supposed to hand resources and aid out to Palestinian refugees, the money slips away unguardedly from the hands of those who need it.

The Palestinians deserve a better economy. For that to happen, they require a true leadership, neither laden by the demands of corruption nor beholden to violent ideologies.

All finance directors need to control their budgets and cash flows. Otherwise, your shop, your corporation or your country enters the world of bankruptcy.

Palestinian Treasury officials have never been able to plan future positions from a position of stability. Blame Israel, internal politics, donors not fulfilling pledges, etc, but their excel spreadsheets have often lacked substance.

The draft budget for 2013 was presented this week in Ramallah. As noted by Finance Minister, Qassis, Israel has not transferred funds for January. Further, Arab countries have yet again defaulted on promises of support. Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) chairman, Jihad Al Wazir, says that from 2008 to 2012, handouts have dropped by two-thirds to a paltry US$600 million.

I am sure that the irony was not lost on the cabinet when a seminar, hosted by Transparency International the previous week, had noted how there was a need to take “measures to improve oversight of PA financial controls at the borders and increase coordination between the border and finance authorities.”  To put it diplomatically, money is simply going astray.

There are clear positives, which give room for cautious optimism. A feature posted on CNBC noted that while the public sector debt was moving dangerously upwards to over 12% of gdp, the PMA has ensured that the banks have been protected from financial harm.

The banking system’s Tier 1 capital, its main benchmark of health, stood at a remarkably robust 24 percent of assets last year, according to the IMF. Struggling European banks’ Tier 1 ratios generally hover between 7 and 10 percent, and at around 8 percent for Israeli banks. Non-performing loans at Palestinian banks stand at less than 3 percent of total loans, and debt-to-deposit ratios remain far healthier than in neighbouring Jordan and Israel.

In parallel to this island of stability has been the slow but detectable rise of a new middle class. Rawabi is a fascinating new town, located near the city of Ramallah. Its development has been encouraged by Israel. Intriguingly, much of the properties are slated for young couples with ‘new money’. And that trend is matched by the growth of Palestinian women in employment, and more specifically as entrepreneurs. Their numbers may now be as high as 30% of the labour force.

Personally, I have found it interesting to read a Palestinian blog describing the “flood of Israeli goods” entering Gaza. While the author clearly believes that this is not a healthy situation, they also failed to note that Egypt has began to waste smuggling tunnels on its border with Gaza. This vital lifeline “brings in an estimated 30 percent of all goods that reach the enclave.”

And of course, if the Palestinians cannot rely on their Arab neighbours for donations, the good news is that the contributions from the relatively affluent EU taxpayer have not seized up. It is difficult to assess accurately the level of payments that the EU devolves to each citizen in Gaza and in the West Bank, as Brussels conceals the statistics. However, the direct directives added up to almost €200 million in 2012. This not only went to financing salaries of civil servants. As confirmed by leading local politicians, the money financed the living standards of convicted terrorists.

For all these positives and their starts, significant change will not come for sometime. The geopolitical dynamics will see to that. In addition, tunnel destruction, rising debt and continuing corruption do not facilitate a mass Palestinian socio-economic revival. As one Palestinian commentator indicated, when the wife of a senior PLO official spends $20,000 for dental treatment in Tel Aviv at a time when there is no shortage of renowned Palestinian dentists in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus, the average citizen is forced to deals with inconvenient truths.

Over the next few months, UN committees, the World Bank, the EU and others are due to release reports blaming continuing Palestinian government poverty on the punishing measures of the Israeli government. There is no space to discuss here what is “punishing”, but even one roadblock has a limiting effect on the surrounding economy.

However, as an economist, I am forced to ask if these international bodies have considered whether the actions of Palestinian leaders are responsible for their own financial mess. Once all the mud-slinging and spin is eliminated from the Palestinian playing field, the regimes in Gaza and in Ramallah are just that – regimes, dictatorships. Historically, these types of government rarely to deliver economic freedom for their voters………….which is why the economists in Ramallah find themsleves ruling over a bankrupt treasury.

Initial estimates suggest that Israel’s economy will shrink by 0.2% as a result of the recent fighting with Gaza. Last week, I detailed some of that potential impact. But what of Gaza? How can over 1.5 million people recover from the severe pounding (literally) handed out by Israel?

A recent IMF report detailed that unemployment was still over 30% in the strip of land, locked between the Bedouin of Sinai and Israel. Much of the Gaza economy is supported by external sources, often smuggled in via the tunnel system. A  video from AlJazeera illustrates this very well, filmed shortly after the current fightng had stopped. Palestinian sources imply that 140, maybe two-thirds of all operating tunnels, were destroyed. Not only does this limit the supply of goods, it removes Hamas from a very healthy supply of revenue from permits for these activities.

However, in some ways, these sketchy details highlight a deeper problem. Obtaining reliable and professional figures for Gaza in most fields is consistently difficult. Just one simple example – the number of minors killed in last week’s fighting: It will take an expert to point out that whatever the stat, and even one death is a tragedy too many, Hamas recruits fighters to its ranks from the age of 16. Thus are these deaths to be recorded as military or civilian?

Now consider the on-going poverty in Gaza, which many people take for granted. The same IMF report also mentions that the Gaza economy grew at a “high rate” in early 2012,mainly on account of a booming construction sector that benefits from lifting of some Israeli restrictions on imports and Gaza’s tunnel trade that benefits from easing of restrictions owing to political change in Egypt“.

Statistics from the Israeli press and based on information from military sources confirm this trend. Hamas probably benefits by around US$500 million annually from the tunnel economy. While the GDP per person stands at a paltry US$1,500, it has leapt upwards by 30% since 2010. And the Israeli army has ensured that building materials, food and medica supplies continue to enter Gaza in quantity, even during the fighting.

I have commented in the past how Gaza has seen a new millionaire elite emerge in the past couple of years. New cars, often imported from China, are now common in the area. An interesting item from Eric Cunningham and dated from the beginning of the recent hostilities observed how Gaza has much wealthier base than in previous hostilities.

While thousands of Gazans flocked to the territory’s short but stunning coastline this summer, when relative peace still reigned, the abrupt bang of hammers and whir of power-drills could be heard on almost every corner of the capital, Gaza City.

Sky-scraping apartment complexes, glitzy new shopping malls and extravagant hotel retreats were sprouting up amid the rubble, and unemployment had dropped to 28 percent from a record-high of 45 percent at the height of the blockade.

Cunningham’s piece even displays a picture of the new funfair. Pointedly, he concludes by citing a second IMF analysis, posted this October. Gaza’s economy is set to grow by 7% in 2013 and 6.5% in 2014.

You are left wondering. Why does Hamas and its allies would want to jeopardise this prosperity that benefits for the Palestinians and replace it with an on-going bloody fight with Israel?

The headline from the New York Times made for a simple summary of a UN report: “U.N. Sees Bleak Outlook for Gaza Unless Services Are Improved

The UN describes how this narrow fertile strip of land, which has been run by Hamas since 2007, may not be fit for habitation by 2020. Education, health and other basic services are on the point of collapse. Unemployment is high. It is sandwiched between geopolitical tensions of Egypt and Israel. Life is very difficult.

To emphasise the point, Maan News service, based in Ramallah, reports that yet again Palestinian Authority (PA) employees in Gaza may not be paid their salaries. The background appears to be a combination of reasons; lack of funds within the PA and also a dispute between the Palestinian Government and its supposed Hamas allies in Gaza.

So how does one reconcile this gloomy picture with new investigative journalism from Arab sources that of the 1.6 million people in Gaza, there are at least 600 millionaires. In fact, on the ground witnesses reveal a very different kind of Gaza than the one depicted in the UN report.

Informed Palestinian sources revealed that every day, in addition to weapons, thousands of tons of fuel, medicine, various types of merchandise, vehicles, electrical appliances, drugs, medicine and cigarettes are smuggled into the Gaza Strip through more than 400 tunnels. A former Sudanese government official who visited the Gaza Strip lately was quoted as saying that he found basic goods that were not available in Sudan. Almost all the tunnels are controlled by the Hamas government, which has established a special commission to oversee the smuggling business, which makes the Hamas government the biggest benefactor of the smuggling industry.

So what’s the truth? The bottom line of the UN report is that 99% of Gaza’s troubles are the fault of Israel. Well, nobody can argue that Israel finds Gaza a welcome neighbour. Daily rocket fire from the Hamas territory did not cease even as schools started up again this week. The problem was that this context was omitted by the authors of the UN document.

The UN also is correct to underemphasise the large role that Egypt plays in the Gaza economy, such as providing much of its electricity. More recently, because of the increasing terrorism in Sinai, of which Hamas affiliated groups have a significant part, Egypt has been clamping down on its border with Gaza. Only 24 hours ago, CNN detailed how many smuggling tunnels, a core of Hamas’ revenue stream, have been shut down by Cairo.

For the record, I was talking to a journalist last week, who had recently been through some of these tunnels. He described what seemed to be large and growing centres of commerce, which would do proud any transportation highway around the world.

At the end of the day, the economies of Gaza and Ramallah may share a common trend. Life may not be comfortable for all, while there are still many who are doing well – in fact, really well. However,for the UN to argue that life is unbearable in the Palestinian territories and that is all the fault of Israel’s reminds one of those who print such racist tractates as the “Protocols of Zion”. Both contain the same level of hatred and distortion.

It was recently pointed out to me by a blogger friend that American federal agencies are encouraging those willing to listen that they should place greater investment in the infrastructure of the Palestinian economy. The aim is to move away from the traditional support given to UNRWA or non commercial elements.

A World Bank report in September 2011 describes “the necessity of both sustainable economic growth and effective institutions for a future viable [Palestinian] state. (And)……investment opportunities have arisen in Palestine. For example, in 2011 the Rasmala Investment Bank established the Ras­mala Palestine Equity Fund, which seeks to “achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in a diversified portfolio of growth and value stocks listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange in securities anticipated to undergo initial public offerings as well as securities at their initial public offering.

One reason for this encouraging change of approach is that the senior Palestinian leadership has yet to shake off the whiff and evil of corruption that pervaded the Arafat dictatorship. To paraphrase a second blogger, Arnold Roth:

Muhammad Rashid, Arafat’s money-carrier (literally), has been arrested. He has been running the Palestine Investment Fund, which in turn controls the Arab Palestinian Investment Company. This organisation is dominated by Tareq and Yasser, the sons of President Abbas.

May not look good to outsiders. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has reserves. Reuters recently observed that:

The Western-backed PA ….says it has poured around $7 billion into the Gaza Strip since its rival Hamas seized control in 2007, but complains that the Islamist group is stymieing its efforts to balance its books……The PA says it spends $120 million a month, or more than 40 percent of its whole budget, on salaries and services in Gaza. 

Remember, those salaries includes dosh for those people launching rockets daily into Israel. And they more than likely funded the “security” provided to a journalist friend as he toured Hamas smuggling tunnels last month. It is also useful to recall that much of this funding comes from the generosity of European taxpayers – over 1 billion dollars since 2008.

Maybe Western leaders are finally aware that this displacement of resources is adversely effecting the average “man on the street” in Ramallah or Jenin. For example, Palestinian sources note that hospitals are facing closure, as they are starved of income. And because the PA has consistently ignored its water obligations under the Oslo Agreement with Israel, villages in the Bethlehem district are now running dry.

Where next? Difficult to say. Palestinian banks are also in a precarious position as they have been struggling to feed the needs of central government. One thing for sure – if you want to invest in the Palestinian economy, make sure that central sources are nowhere near the distribution table.

2011 and the centenary of International Womens’ Day had a special meaning. From Algeria to Syria and down through the Saudi peninsular, the female gender has been on the streets in male-dominated societies. It is their desire for greater freedom of expression that has one of the main fear factors, haunting the President of Iran, the Sultan of Oman and the rest of them.

The Prime Minister of Israel is also known for caving in under pressure. Despite the protestations of the Finance Ministry, Bibi Netanyahu raised the minimum wage barrier – immediately deflating cries of protest from women voters. He still has to appease social workers, whose conditions are a national disgrace.

You can surf the net and find all kinds of articles criticising or supporting the way Israel supports women in society. Most these – Guardian (against), Haneen Zoabi (against) and the Jerusalem Post (Israeli newspaper) – come from established positions.

So, what makes Israeli women different from their counterparts in the region.

  • Is it that they can lead political parties openly, and even become Prime Minister as Golda Meir did?
  • Is it that in a society with a heavy military influence, they can readily be accepted as army officers?
  • Does the open opportunity for women to play sport rank as a factor?
  • Or how about the increasing openings for females from minority sectors, such as the Bedouin community?
  • And what about the achievements of Israeli women in science and research, which are increasingly recognised by the international academic community?

The answer is probably none of the above…as individual issues. It is the sum of the whole that counts.

Just this past week:-

  • A female VP of a Tel Aviv media group called to pressure me to move on an issue.
  • I have helped a lady in the ultra orthodox community to sell a business in order to expand in to another area.
  • A young mother is asking me to help her business diverse, having bought it for very little and converted it into a successful commercial identity.

All of these people have opportunities to control their lives as women, and are seizing the moment. They are not alone.

None of this is to deny that sexism and violence is still prevalent in some sectors of society – as the demoralising trial of ex-President Katsav demonstrated.

That said, the next hundred years of International Women’s Day in Israel should continue be a triumph to what and how others in neighbouring countries can aspire to.

Writing 2 weeks ago in the UK newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens summarised an extensive visit to Gaza, which he described as “world’s most misrepresented location“.

Hitchens coverage was the first amongst several similar stories in the international, all with a similar theme.

I don’t think it (Gaza) is a paradise, or remotely normal………..There are dispiriting slums that should have been cleared decades ago, people living on the edge of subsistence. There is danger. And most of the people cannot get out. But it is a lot more complicated, and a lot more interesting, than that………

But if you think Israel is the only problem, or that Israelis are the only oppressors hereabouts, think again. Realise, for a start, that Israel no longer rules Gaza. Its (former) settlements are ruins.

Even when, as in Gaza, there is no way out, morality patrols sweep through restaurants in search of illicit beer and women smoking in public, affronting the 14th Century values of Hamas.

Hitchens is going against a decade or so of politically correct wisdom. Two years ago, Time Magazine pleaded: “Please spare a thought for the starving Palestinians of Gaza. There are 1.5 million of them”. In parallel, and industry of NGOs has arisen, although they seem content to criticise Israel but never the excesses of Palestinian rule.

So what is the truth? was there ever hunger? Has Gaza suddenly discovered gold? Has it been wealthy all the time, but nobody really reported the facts? As Hitchens also commented, the truth in the Middle East is rarely what you see on the surface, so let’s dig a bit more.

Go to any IMF or World Bank report on the Palestinian economy  – and Gaza in particular – and you will find a depressing set of economic statistics. Every since September 2000 when Yassir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority launched the Second Intifada, the economy has nose dived.

But if financial growth in Gaza went backwards, then previously it must have achieved a “higher” level from which to fall. And this is where the work of Sebastien Dessus for the World Bank is so valuable. Professionally, he has been tracking the Palestinian economy for over a decade. Note what he says about the period from the onset of Israeli rule to the start of the Intifada.

While real GDP grew by 5.5 percent on average in West Bank and Gaza from 1968 to 2000, it only grew by 4.2 percent in Israel. During the same time, population grew by 2.9 percent in WBG and 2.4 percent in Israel.

Does that put the Palestinians as one of the most successful economies in the last quarter of the twentieth century? Bring on the Intifada, suicide bombings and attacks from Gaza, and the Palestinian population suddenly found themselves without 125,000 jobs in Israel. And these were considered relatively well paid positions. Couple this with Israeli defensive measures – justified and  / or repressive – and you have the recipe for a mega economic dip.

For the Palestinian leadership, the question was did the political uplift justify the financial turmoil, a debate I will not deal with. Certainly, key personalities did not suffer. Fatah strongman, Mohammed Dahlan amassed a personal fortune since his PA career began in the late 1980s, organising youth mobs in Gaza City. Hamas has collected a wealth of taxes from the smuggling industry, leading to “unprecedented social mobility” according to one local source.

And today? As Hitchens writes, life in Gaza is not a picnic, but neither is it a disaster. Further recent evidence?

  • The Financial Times has described the al-Deira luxury hotel, which has remained open despite Israeli measures and the repressive practices of the Hamas government.
  • Mai Yaghi, a local Gaza reporter has detailed how the old smuggling tunnels have a completely new and ironic purpose , because “lifting of restrictions (by Israel) in recent months has seen consumer goods pour into the Hamas-run territory through Israeli crossings, transforming the tunnels that once served as a lifeline for Gaza into its sole export channel.”
  • The EU’s representative to the West Bank, Gaza and UNRWA, Christian Berger, not considered a friend of Israel, has been quoted as saying that the area is “full of consumer goods”. 
  • And if Berger feels that there is not enough ready cash and actual purchases, he should recall that the largest employer in Gaza is the civil service. The Palestinian Authority is still paying the salaries of these 67,000 people, even if many are paid up Hamas officials.

Is Gaza rich? No. It still needs the tons of daily aid, which Israel facilitates. On the other hand, a utube video from an unknown source shows beyond doubt just what multiple resources are available in wide parts of the territory.

And is there a lesson for the future? Look what is happening in the West Bank. Hatred of Israel may still predominate. But much of the violence has been laid to one side. As Time Magazine now observes.

Ramallah’s first five-star hotel, a Mövenpick, is opening this month. Across the West Bank, similar scenes are unfolding. Building cranes pierce the sky. Outside Nablus, new car dealerships sell everything from BMWs to Hyundais. Inside the ancient city, the first movie house to open in 20 years, Cinema City, is hugely popular. Last year the Hirbawi Home Center, a five-story shopping mall selling luxury items like plasma TVs, opened just outside Jenin.

Indeed, the IMF has reported that the Palestinian economy is on track to grow 8% in 2010.

So, the international media have confirmed that Gaza is not an economic prison. One question remains. As Tom Gross, a leading commentator, pondered; why does the BBC, possibly the world’s largest communicator, seem determined to ignore this story?

Whether you look at Gaza or the West Bank, it is difficult to get a true picture of economic progress. The story is often heavily clouded by the spin of politicians protecting their own agendas.

Fox News reports of the spanking new shopping mall in Gaza. Erected despite the Hamas claims that there are no materials to build new homes, it remains debatable if local purchasing power is strong enough to provide profits for the retailers of fila shoes and barbie dolls.

Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian journalist writing in the Jerusalem Post, takes another angle.

…the Orjuwan Lounge in the fashionable neighborhood of Al-Masyoun in Ramallah has become a symbol of the dramatic change that has taken place in this city in the past three years.

The improved security has encouraged Palestinians and foreigners to inject money into the city or even move to live there. Luxury apartments are on sale in most parts of the city.

(For example): Sources in the Ramallah Municipality revealed that more than 100 Palestinians from Jerusalem have relocated their businesses to Ramallah in the past few months. “Here they pay less taxes and have more customers,” the sources said.

And that is not all. The Abraaj equity group from Dubai will operate a US$50 million investment fund from Ramallah. Toameh goes on to describe how international hotel chains and “embassies” are moving into Ramallah, effectively converting the city in to a de facto bourgois capital.

It is interesting to note that the July inflation stats revealed a sharp rise in prices in the West Bank region, indicative of the reduced fighting and increased prosperity.

Meanwhile, in Hamas controlled Gaza, prices changes were flat. What has yet to be concluded is whether this deflation is a result of continuous authoritarian rule. On the other hand, the trend could be explained by the continued heavy flow of goods into the region via tunnels and Israel’s relaxing of border restrictions, which have thus combined to increase supply and reduce prices. 

Either way, the shouts of deep poverty and “woe is me” in these territories are becoming more exaggerated by the day.

Last week, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange held its 10th annual soiree in London. The big guns of the Israeli economy were there, led by Esther Levanon, the dynamic CEO of the exchange.

Levanon proudly recalled that once the Israeli economy used to be compared to that of Greece. Today, with Israel now a member of the elite in the MSCI exchanges, her position there is worth that of Greece, Portugal and Ireland combined.

Stanley Fischer, the governor of the Bank of Israel, and with an excellent reputation on the world banking stage, was hauled out in front of loads of tape recorders and video cameras. Fischer was ready to launch his speech at any given moment:

  • Israel banks encourage savings and rarely lend more than 70% of mortgage values.
  • Israeli workers cut their hours in the recession to protect jobs
  • The high tech sector now contributes to 51% of the value of the country’s exports.

The micro stats are just as impressive:

  • Unemployment is 7.2% and decreasing, as opposed to 10.0% in the USA and in Europe.
  • Israel has maintained its current account surplus
  • It maintains a 4.0% growth rate in most years
  • It invests 4.9% of its GDP (2.3% for the OECD)
  • Its public sector debt barely grew during the recession, where as the OECD average reflected a near 20% change.

Message: Israel is the place to invest

As the financial daily, “The Marker” pointed out – don’t mention the lousy education system or the economic concentration available in the hands of a few families, and life for Israel’s financial planners could seem almost perfect.

It is politically correct to accept that Gaza’s economic woes are cause by Israeli policies. However, if you use IMF and World Bank stats, 3 points are immediately evident of Gaza’s history:

  • Under Egyptian rule up to 1967, the area was an economic no-go area with life expectancy under 60
  • With Israel in charge, growth leapt to over 5% per annum until 1999.
  • Bring on the Intifada and then Hamas rule, and its back to disaster time.

Fertile Gaza, with an economy that could be really successful, suffers from unemployment, poor sanitation and an authoritarian  government.

For all the repeated criticism of Israel from UNRWA, NGOs, the Turkish Prime Minister and others, there is no starvation in Gaza. Consumer goods exist in quantity. There are even official tariffs to protect some local manufacturers and keep out imports. Hamas has refused to move even one Palestinian family from the refugee camps and into former Israeli towns. 

I found  a recent Newsweek article illuminating:-

While the three-year-old ban on many imports has posed a hardship for most Gazans, smugglers have been able to deliver these items through a network of tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt. An Israeli television news segment—aired last week and widely discussed here—shows Palestinian shop owners on the phone with their Israeli suppliers, coordinating the delivery of goods by sea to Cyprus and onto Sinai, where they’re carted to Gaza through the tunnels.

So not much of a blockade. So what is likely to change now that Netanyahu has bowed again to international pressure and accepted most of Obama’s demands?

Will there be less firing on Israeli civilians, the main cause of Israeli hostility? Maybe – not out of love, but because Hamas has seen how the propaganda front can be more rewarding than firing thousands of missiles.

Ironically, if imports arrive directly into Gaza, prices may rise and Hamas may lose a source of its income. Hundreds will lose work in the tunnel industry and Hamas will cease to take its graft from the reduced contraband. Maybe, the activities will transferred to the overland ports of entry and “normality” will be restored.

Israel has agreed to up the numbers of trucks allowed to enter Gaza daily from around 100 to 150. Maybe exports can start up, which will produce a real bonus for the economy. The fact that NGOs have failed to call for this until now reveals how their focus was often directed against Israel than on behalf  of Palestinians.

What would truly make a difference is if Hamas were to recognise Israel’s right to exist. In the West Bank, where the economy has grown by around 8% in the past 12 months, there is now cooperation over sewage schemes and alternative wind energy. Rami Levy, one of Israel’s largest supermarket chains, has a new branch near Bethlehem open to all.

Why don’t world politicians force Hamas to do something that is obvious, necessary, simple and humane; to recognise Israel and to live in peace with the state? Think how much we would ALL be better off.

Is the Palestinian economy finally showing real signs of improvement? There is cause to believe that it is moving away from conflict-driven scenarios, while looking to create sustained growth.

The World Bank has documented that between 1968 and 1999, Palestinians averaged around 5.5% real growth per year, a brilliant achievement by any standards.

With the onset of Intifada, those figures went in to reverse. Blame Palestinian terrorism or Israeli aggression, the average Palestinian’s income dropped off the scale. Tax collection was almost a non-entity. The Funding For Peace Coalition estimated that 25% of the Palestinian budget came through external donations. And who knows which elements grafted off the top?

So what’s changed? First, the European Union finally began to realise that the billions of aid distributed annually had to be more transparent. In parallel, there is a growing awareness that a dependency on handouts will not create an independent economy.

One example is this new approach occurred this week. The Palestinian Administration has demanded that Hamas pay for electricity used in the Gaza Strip. This is in response to the European demand for greater accountability.

Tom Gross, an established commentator on the Middle East, reported on how Palestinian security forces in the West Bank may finally be turning to formal policing and not actions against Israel. One effect of this change has been the opening of a new cinema in Jenin, until recently known as a centre of the Intifada violence.

At a macro level, a high level Dutch delegation met with the Palestinian minster of the economy and 50 companies in order to discuss investment possibilities. Abraaj Capital has co-sponsored a US$50 million investment fund, primarily aimed at small and medium sized Palestinian enterprises.

All very encouraging. But what next? It is very much up to the leadership of the various factions. The Palestinian Authority, controlled by President Abbas, is still perceived by many as corrupt. And Hamas in Gaza is little better.

Greater transparency and more local projects out of the grasp of politicians. And a continuous uplift to the economy is probably the best method to turn people away from the supporters of violence.

The Goldstone commission, under UN direction, looked at human rights abuses against Palestinians.

The final report has come in for much criticism from Israel. And yet, with some irony, it is the Palestinian Authority, which has interrupted the progress of the document on the way to the UN’s General Assembly. The reasons for this change of direction vary – ranging from American pressure to a desire to return to the peace process.

The Palestinian Commission for Human Rights suggests an alternative cause for policy alteration. Its latest report, referring to August 2009, makes for damning reading, a mess of violations of human rights, where Israel has had no direct or indirect role.

ICHRdocumented 48 cases of death in the Palestinian-controlled Territory during August 2009. 41 of which took place in the Gaza Strip. In terms of cause of death, these cases are distributed as follows: 28 deaths were attributed to armed clashes in Rafah city, while 3 deaths were linked to violent family disputes and rivalry. In addition, 3 lives were lost due to security chaos and manslaughter while 7 death cases resulted of tunnels accidents.

 

 

 

 

 

As for the West Bank,

 

7 death cases occurred, the causes of which are distributed as follows: one death case occurred in a detention center in Nablus; 5 deaths were linked to family disputes and one death case occurred as a result of negligence and the non-adoption of general safety precautions. death case occurred in a detention center in Nablus;5 deaths were linked to family disputes and one precautions.

The report details names, places, dates, hard facts. It cites the customary harassment of the press, sexual harrassment and the lack of basic religious freedoms.

For all Israel’s criticisms of the Goldstone Report, it strikes me that the commission has failed those people it was trying to help. The report failed to point out and stress these repeated yet hidden deprivations in the life of ordinary Palestinians. If not the UN, who will halt this continuous saga of shame?

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