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TechnoratiPalestinian Hope Held Hostage:
Economic Sanctions are Keeping Palestinians From Building a Life.
Two weeks ago, I became the minster of finance for a people whose economy has all but collapsed. It was the start of business for the new Palestinian unity government, born after months of tricky on-again, off-again negotiations and amid economic sanctions, bloodshed and misery.
The government came together after a bad year for the struggling Palestinian Authority. Our economic difficulties grew much worse during that period, in the aftermath of a free and fair election that brought Hamas to power. Because Hamas' political platform did not conform to key elements of the peace process, including Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist and a commitment to renounce violence, the international community imposed sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.
Although much of the discussion leading to the formation of the unity government has focused on these two commitments, their validity should not have been much in question. After all, these commitments were made by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in a crystal-clear and binding agreement in 1993, and no Palestinian government has the authority to revoke them. In fact, the unity government's platform explicitly states that it will honor all PLO agreements, which, to be sure, include these two commitments.
As someone who has long worked for peace and reconciliation with Israel — a peace based on mutual recognition of each people's rights — I have always subscribed to the PLO's political program and all the commitments it embodies, including the recognition of Israel's right to exist and the renunciation of violence. I still do. My top priority is to lead the effort to end the economic sanctions and to restore the integrity of our public finance system.
A harsh and painful year after the onset of the sanctions, staggering poverty and unemployment rates prevail. Today, almost two-thirds of the Palestinian population lives in poverty, with per-capita income at 60% of its level in 1999. But as Thomas Jefferson said: "If we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair." As a Palestinian, I have a duty to hope and to work tirelessly to make the dreams of my people a reality.
We Palestinians dream of living normal lives. We dream of an end to the days when Palestinian farmers in the West Bank watch their crops destroyed to make way for Israeli-only roads, an end to the days when Palestinian children must brave Israeli military checkpoints to get to school and an end to the days when Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians are sealed inside their territory, cut off from the rest of the world. Like all people, we deserve freedom in our own land. We deserve democratic, transparent and accountable institutions. And we deserve to live in peace and economic cooperation with all our neighbors, including Israel.
Over the years, the international community has encouraged and supported Palestinians in building democratic institutions to serve as the foundation of our future state. Donor assistance helped pay for the building of schools, hospitals and roads in addition to supporting good governance and providing the know-how to create a functioning administration.
In my previous term as finance minister, from June 2002 to December 2005, I played a leading role in establishing transparency and accountability in government finances through the introduction of a series of deep, wide-ranging reforms that helped bring our public finance system up to international standards. These included the consolidation of all government revenues in the Ministry of Finance, the elimination of extra-budgetary spending and the regular publication of detailed financial statements.
Since the international sanctions were imposed, aid has continued to flow, which has helped prevent starvation. But by channeling funds so that they bypass the Ministry of Finance, donors have unintentionally contributed to reversing these institution-building gains. The money coming in can no longer be traced, and we cannot ensure that it is not being misappropriated.
Also, our dependence on foreign-aid handouts is increasing while our economic development is stifled. In 2005, for example, only 16% of European Union aid to Palestine was classified as humanitarian. Last year, that figure rose to 56%.
We do not aspire to be a beggar nation, dependent on the world to feed our people. We have the capacity, education and talent to build a thriving economy and a strong democracy. But we cannot do so while Israel seals our borders and withholds tax revenue it owes us, or while U.S. banking regulations prevent banks from handling government business.
In order that we may begin again to develop the institutions and systems that will make us self-reliant and that will buttress the foundation of our future state, the sanctions must be lifted.
The U.S. has long acknowledged — as has the entire world community — that the formation of a viable, independent Palestinian state on the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip is the way out of this nearly 60-year-old conflict. But until the international community demonstrates the political will to help bring about a comprehensive settlement — one that will grant Palestinians the freedom to build our own economy and institutions in our own land — we will all continue to pay the price. Despair will continue to erode hope. And, lest we forget the words of Jefferson, hope is indeed "as cheap, and pleasanter."
Salam Fayyad is the minister of finance in the Palestinian unity government.
© 2007 The Los Angeles Times
12 Comments so far
Show AllHamas was empowered by Israel as a counter to the influence of Arafat and the PLO. Israel didn't realize that the serpent that they were feeding would one day come to bite them back.
hamas is at war with israel and vis versa. the hamas charter calls for israels destruction, and statements to this effect are made by its leaders on a regular basis. the idea that israel should fund hamas in absurd. a portion of those funds would go to the hamas military effort to destroy israel. i feel anyone who doesn't see that is being naive.
now, the situation in gaza and the west bank is certainly a tragedy. personally i would support israel taking the money it collects and using it for humanitarian purposes. however saying that israel should give money to hamas is ludicrous. it'd be as if al queda were complaining to the world that the united states cutting off its financial assets was unfair.
let me repeat something said WmC stated that i agree with:
> A discussion that seeks to assign exclusive responsibility for the blood-letting in the Middle East to one party or the other is doomed
Unless people are willing to look at the legitimate concerns of both sides in this conflict, they are basically ranting, not being helpful.
You got it all wrong Poet, just look at the occupation of Iraq by the US. Who is paying for the Iraqis' daily survival and its reconstruction? Did the US ditch them and said you are on your own? Especially after the oil money never came about? Now look at Israel, they occupy somebody else's land, but are they contributing one cent to the survival of the people? They are not, that is why there is this whole business of subsidy by not just US and UK, but by practically all the countries in Europe. This is just so that the occupying power don't have to pay for their occupation. And to top it off, the occupier is not just not paying for the survival of the occupied, they are also stealing the occupied's tax revenue.
As long as Arabs and Jews want to play the "blame game" instead of moving forward from today, the crisis will continue, creating more poverty, unecessary deaths and lifelong physical and psychological wounds.
Both players must be willing to confront their own demons and ALL the issues responsible for perpetuating this moral crisis. It was man who created this mess, and it must be man who finds the remedy.
At this stage of the game of never-ending wars/battles between Jews and Arabs, it should be evident that God isn't taking one side or the other. A human being is not a Muslim, Jew or Christian, but a human being, emerging from the same source.
We all seem to be failing the test of our creator.
I want to say a wordon behalf of the Palestinians and not necessarily against Israel. For those in theUnioted States to get a better idea of how the west (primarily Britain and the US) look to Palestinians imagine the following:
Mexico petitions the UN for return of its stolen territory from the US and by UN decree this is granted. Then the Russians and Chinese in solidarity with the Mexicans gave them the benefit of all their most advanced training and military hardware,and helped enforce the confiscation of property from Americanos and their ghettoization at old US military bases "for their own protection".
Then imagine that the Russians and Chinese subsidized teh Mexican economy to the tune of multiple billions of dollars a year. That is exactly what Britain and the US have done to the Palestinians.
Let me make a couple of obvious points that posters here seem to be ignoring:
1) American Jews mostly vote Democratic. Jewish senators like Russ Feingold and the late Paul Wellstone have been among the strongest voices for peace in the Middle East. No one should make the mistake of assuming that AIPAC (or the Likud Party, for that matter) speaks for American Jews. (Unless, of course, you're willing to accept the notion that George W. Bush speaks for all Americans.)
2)A discussion that seeks to assign exclusive responsibility for the blood-letting in the Middle East to one party or the other is doomed to last as long as the hostilities themselves.
I think it's time for the US to say it will gradually cut military and humanitarian aid to Palestinians and Israelis until the two parties agree to submit their claims to an international binding arbitration process.
In a lame attempt to somehow justify their cruel and illegal occupation of Palestine, the defenders of Israeli imperialism always fall back to the conflict between Arabs and Jews at the founding of Israei 60 years ago. This is irrelevant to the inexcusable actions of today by Israel. The world sees the huge injustice of Israeli oppression. It is time for the world to demand an equitable settlement that creates a Palestinian state. Israel needs to acknowlege the right of Palestine to exist too.
Israeli actions in Lebanon are also indefensible. The previously-planned Israeli terror bombing of Lebanon came in three waves. With its electronic pinpoint precision bombing and artillery, the Israeli government went after civilians, their homes, cities, towns and villages. Then after telling some to abandon their neighborhoods, it cut population centers off from each other by destroying transportation facilities into and inside Lebanon, making both refugee flight and delivery of emergency relief efforts either impossible or very difficult. Then its planes, tanks and artillery endangered or destroyed what food, water and relief efforts managed to get through to the injured and dying. Warehouse food supplies were incinerated. About four hundred small fishing boats north of Beirut on the oil-polluted coastline were demolished as well.
The Israelis destroyed bridges, roads, gasoline stations, airports, seaports, wheat silos, vehicles with medical supplies, clearly marked ambulances taking the wounded to clinics, even a milk factory. Shelters were demolished with bodies of little children together with their mothers and fathers buried in the rubble. The number of fleeing refugees neared one million Lebanese, many were exposed to hunger, disease, lack of potable water and medicines. Israeli soldiers shot fleeing refugees in cars full of families, bombed apartment buildings, hospitals and the poor huddled in large south Beirut slums.
What words come to mind to describe Israeli office holders--savages, barbarians, primitives, murderers, vandals, uncivilized, callous, terrorists?
Ken Mitchell presents Israel as the victim when in actuality it is the aggressor. He neglects to mention that in a pre-emptive strike in 1967, Israel illegally invaded Palestinian territory, occupied it, and arrogantly created Israeli settlements making it difficult to conduct peace. He fails to state that Israel has ignored two United Nations resolutions demanding that it withdraw from Palestinian territory. How would he (or anyone) like it if some group illegally and forcibly occupied their house, set up its people to live in their rooms, and then had the gall to want to negotiate with them over giving the house back to them? After 36 years of illegal occupation, suicide missions should be no surprise. Left out is a news report by Amnesty International that contends that Israeli forces committed war crimes in Jenin and Nablus during a large-scale offensive in the West Bank, killing Palestinians unlawfully, blocking medical care, using people as human shields and bulldozing houses with residents inside. In its 24-hour curfews on the cities, Palestinians could not shop for food, bury their dead, go to the hospital for emergency treatment, and are shot for attempting to do so. These are not the acts of a civilized nation but of terrorists; these acts do not lead to the peace. Most importantly, he omits the fact that the Arab League has offered to recognize Israel and safeguard its borders if it will withdraw its troops; Israel had refused this peace offer.
One problem. I know that in leftist circles, it is chic to condemn Israel. What the condemnors fail to recognize is that since Israel's rebirth in 1948, that nation has had to deal with nations and organizations that are committed to its destruction. The partition in 1948 created a Palestinian as well as an Israeli state. The Arab nations would have none of this. The PLO then, and Hamas now call for Israel's destruction. A large part of the blame for the Palestinians' plight belongs to the Palestinians themselves.
Yes Ken, in theory the Palestinans have not been perfect. But everything your write above is biased propaganda that is the typical drivel of Zionist apologists such as yourself. Your little history lesson is nonsense. See the work of Israel Shamir, PARDES.
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htmwww.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htm
October 22, 2004
War on Iraq: Not oil but Israel
By STEPHEN J. SNIEGOSKI
That some oil companies might derive benefits from the U.S. takeover of Iraq does not mean they were the driving force. In short, the neoconservatives certainly sought allies for their war agenda, and the promise of oil riches was one way they saw of possibly drawing support from the oil companies.
"That some oil companies might derive benefits from the U.S. takeover of Iraq does not mean they were the driving force. In short, the neoconservatives certainly sought allies for their war agenda, and the promise of oil riches was one way they saw of possibly drawing support from the oil companies."
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htmwww.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htm
October 22, 2004
War on Iraq: Not oil but Israel
By STEPHEN J. SNIEGOSKI