February 28, 2006
JUST SAY THE MAGIC WORDS:
Palestinians fear poverty if foreign aid lifeline severed (Matthew Gutman, 2/28/06, USA TODAY)
Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn said the Palestinian Authority faces financial collapse within two weeks because of Israel's decision to cut off tax transfers, Reuters reported Monday. He predicted that "violence and chaos" could break out unless a long-term funding plan is developed.Posted by Orrin Judd at February 28, 2006 7:27 AMFriendly governments in the region may pick up some of the slack. The largest single pledge so far is a one-time $100 million grant from Iran, according to Hamas spokesman Farhat Asad. Saudi Arabia gives the Palestinians about $15 million a month, according to Palestinian Authority Economy Minister Mazen Sinokrot.
The Palestinians are dependent on the money to build roads and other infrastructure projects in addition to meeting the authority's payroll. The Palestinian government is by far the biggest employer in the Palestinian territories with 150,000 employees — breadwinners for a million Palestinians, or a third of all Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
"In March, I don't believe we'll be able to pay salaries," Sinokrot said. About 90% of the Palestinian budget is spent on salaries.
"That means the whole system could collapse, bringing unemployment and mass violence with it," Sinokrot said. He said the authority already has an $800 million deficit. [...]
Yousef Ju'edi, 46, is a father of five and owns a restaurant churning out kebab sandwiches behind the town hall here. He's worried about the government payroll even though he's not a civil servant. "I need them to get paid. When the civil servants don't get their paychecks, none of us will," he said through a haze of barbecue smoke.
Masri said he's been able to stretch Qalqilya's $6 million annual budget farther than his predecessors.
Masri is responsible for making sure the city streets are swept, the boulevards' shrubbery pruned and the cobblestones painted. Now, his flagship project in the municipality, revamping the decrepit electricity grid, is in jeopardy.
Issa Faris, the city's engineer, prides himself on the town's few brownouts.
Over the past year, the Hamas-run municipality operated without new parts, and even managed to pay back some of its electricity debts to its provider — the Israel Electric Company.
But without outside funding and the donation of equipment, "eventually the parts we have for transformers, cables, towers, etc. ... will break or corrode and we won't be able to replace them," he said. "We need that foreign aid."
So people from the Phillipines and the like come from the other side of the world to work in Saudi Arabia and people in Palestine are dependent on the charity of strangers.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 28, 2006 7:50 AMLou, the Palestinians wore out their welcome in that part of the world back in 1990-1991 when they backed Saddam Hussein in Gulf War I.
Terribly inpolitic of Saddam to lose that one.
Posted by: Mikey at February 28, 2006 7:55 AMMikey -
It was a lot earlier than that - probably going back to 1948, when they became "homeless". Certainly the Jordanians made their feelings clear in 1970.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 28, 2006 8:03 AMAbout 90% of the Palestinian budget is spent on salaries.
"Salaries", eh?
Sounds like a few aboriginal communities I could name.
The limits of absurdity were surpassed long ago.
But in all truth, you can't really fault the Palestinians. The West (Europe, the US, and even Israel) has, for years, been giving them financial assistance (paying them, in essence) to destroy the Zionist Entity. Why should that assistance stop now? Especially since Hamas was elected democratically? Especially since Hamas now proudly proclaims it will do what the Palestinian Authority could only hint at doing (while the latter was getting all that cash from the West)?
If you were a Palestinian, wouldn't you be sorely confused--and enraged---at such hypocrisy?
It's enough to make one want to go out and destroy the Zionist Entity---and the West that created and sponsors it (one must always attempt to understand root causes.)
Posted by: Barry Meislin at February 28, 2006 8:53 AMThey may have a democratically elected government, but they have no media celebrity heading it like Arafat to thrill the smart set in the West with his presence and get them to open up their coffers. And since the IDF has this annoying habit of blowing up Palestinian terror masterminds before they really have a chance to make a name for themselves, odds are they aren't going to develop a new "bad boy" leader any time soon who can bring a gun to his United Nations speech and cause anti-Semites around the world to swoon in delight. (The only Middle Eastern rogue today with the celebrity to warm the hearts of the poltiical/intellectual left is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who, as a Jordanian I suppose could be named honorary Palestinian leader, but I don't think he can stick his head up to beg for cash long enough to keep it from getting shot off).
That leaves Hamas with really just two options -- either govern, and take Israeli pressure off their operation, or hope that you can get your cash bailout solely from the Arab oil kingdoms which will allow you to continue your terror attacks, while spreading the money around to the right places to try and head off anger among Palestinians for not providing services.
Posted by: John` at February 28, 2006 9:52 AM"violence and chaos" if the money is cut? How will we be able to tell?
Posted by: Bob at February 28, 2006 10:59 AMThey'll get money from the West, including Israel, which is more threatened by complete social breakdown than by even an unreconstructed Hamas.
Posted by: oj at February 28, 2006 11:34 AMWe should announce tomorrow we are using 25% of the usual $400 Million in funds for Palestine in Darfur and will decide on where to use the next 25% of the money next week.
The Israelis and the EU ought to do the same.
When it's all gone they can tell the Palestinians "There's always next year."
Posted by: Dusty at February 28, 2006 12:51 PMNot anymore OJ. With the fence underway and Gaza fenced in, the chaos in Palestine should be reasonably contained.
I can picture the UN attempting to have Israel restore the monthly stipend out of "fairness" or threaten to restore the Iraqi oil for Hamas program.
Posted by: Genecis at February 28, 2006 12:57 PMGenecis:
They didn't fence Jordan, Lebanon, Syria.... Chaos is never contained.
Posted by: oj at February 28, 2006 1:01 PMSo, if things break down completely in 'Palestine', they will try to emigrate to Egypt or Jordan? The other Arab countries will machine-gun every refugee at the border, and the West might just shrug.
If we really wanted to scare the Saudis, we should just threaten to start unloading boats of Palestinians at Jeddah.
Posted by: ratbert at February 28, 2006 1:25 PMThe Final Test: Would the worldwide media cover Arab countries machine gunning innocent Palestinians at the border?
Posted by: erp at February 28, 2006 3:42 PMerp;
Only a couple of column inches on page A16.
My thinking was similar, that perhaps Israel is planning on using other Arab nations to thin out the Palestinians, because Arab nations can massacre Palestinians in job lot quantities without no cost in world opinion (just look at all the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that went on after the Gulf War).
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at February 28, 2006 4:20 PMWorth a try then, I guess.
Posted by: erp at February 28, 2006 6:30 PM