Shocking report at Haaretz, on Israel's defiance of the idea of Palestinian statehood. The country has prepared a 44 page report saying that Palestine can't stand on its own two feet economically, so Europe must prop up the bantustans.
"Another talking point to justify continuing Israel's apartheid one-state solution," says Ilene Cohen, who passed this along, and who long supported the two state solution because it was international consensus. Haaretz:
Israel is expected to present a report Wednesday at a donor meeting on Palestinian aid in Brussels claiming that the Palestinian Authority is not sufficiently stable to meet the standards of a well-functioning state..
Israel is expected to emphasize before the donor countries that despite the growth of recent years, the Palestinian Authority still needs foreign aid to survive.
"The fiscal crisis is especially acute because much of the West Bank economy still depends on the public sector and on construction projects, both still heavily financed by foreign aid. It also serves as an alarming warning sign for the stability of the Palestinian economy," the report said.
This shows what occupation has done to the Palestinian economy, this shows how essential international donor aid is to the Israeli occupation. And this shows why Europeans are becoming increasingly angry about what their aid is supporting.
This was always the plan. Israel systematically destroyed the Palestinian economy starting from 1967.
Israel forbid Palestinians from developing any meaningful industry in the OPT, from developing financial services, from benefiting from the natural reources of the OPT. It imposed impossible tariffs on Palestinian exports, virtually elimiated freedom of movement in the territories, broke virtually all trade links with Jordan and turned the West Bank into a captive market for cheap Israeli products at the expense of Palestinian ones. When the Oslo process started it convinced the international community to fund development via aid and in 2002 when it reinvaded the West Bank it destroyed the vast majority of development projects.
With Gaza it has gone even farther. The Strip has been bombed back to the 19th century (if not earlier).
Europe can’t be expected to continue to underwrite Israel’s insanity. There is enough money in the Jewish community to do so. It isn’t our crisis.
Israel systematically destroyed the Palestinian economy starting from 1967.
Yes, the World Bank has been reporting on that situation for years:
link to siteresources.worldbank.org
When the British, French, and League of Nations partitioned Ottoman Asia they disrupted regional trade and replaced it with their own “policy of the Open Door”, which favored the members of the League. The British granted long-term concessions, banking charters, and many other key economic privileges to the Zionists, See Barbara J. Smith, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine: British Economic Policy, 1920-1929 (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East), Syracuse Univ., 1993.
You can’t very easily partition a river, sea port, line of communication, or sole source of essential materials. The UN answer was a proposal to lower the standard of living that the Palestinians had enjoyed during the mandate era by partitioning Palestine into a Jewish state and a non-viable, dependent, Arab state. Many UN member states admitted as much for the record (see the verbatim quote in the link below).
Rules of Transit and a Plan for an Economic Union were included in the UN partition plan to compensate for those disadvantages, but they were never implemented. That situation, and the role of the Jewish Agency in creating it, is documented in declassified materials published in the State Department’s Foreign Relations (FRUS) series and in the unclassified UN documents themselves. I’ve cited and quoted some of them in the past: link to mondoweiss.net
“Europeans are becoming increasingly angry about what their aid is supporting.”
Yes, but they have a long way to go. Our political process may be not as paralyzed by the Israel Lobby as is yours in Washington, but they still call the shots.
Just this week, the leader of Germans main “opposition” party SPD, Sigmar Gabriel, was travelling in the West Bank. He posted on Facebook that conditions there are unacceptable and called them “Apartheid-like”.
Of course, the thought police were quickly on the case, denouncing him. So he issued an apology hours later, saying that comparing Israel to South Africa was not fair.
Not fair to who?
lyn,
he claimed it being not fair to Israel, since, in his mind, South Africa was worse and different.
European aid keeps the occupation going. Without it YESHA would have collapsed already.
The West Bank- the market for cheap Israeli crap
“Overall Israeli trade with the PA (goods and services) totaled USD 4.308 billion, an increase of 2.1% compared to 2010. Israeli purchases from the PA amounted to USD 815.9 million , an increase of 18.3%. Israeli sales to the PA amounted to USD 3.492 billion , a decrease of 1.1% compared to 2010.1 Tax revenue transferred by Israel to the PA increased by 5.9%2.
Palestinian imports (excluding Israel) amounted to USD 1.75 bn , a 9.22% increase compared to the parallel period in the previous year. Palestinian exports (excluding Israel) amounted to USD 105 mn in 2011, a 13% increase compared to the parallel period in the previous year”
link to mfa.gov.il
So the Palestinians buy USD 3.5 bn of crap from Israel and sell USD 0.8 bn of products to Israel and get nothing for the land and water that Israel has taken since 1967.
Reparations will run into the tens of billions. Israel can’t afford reparations so the settler project continues.
And the goys are supposed to prop up the Palestinians indefinitely.
I may have missed it but I don’t recall having seen any mention, here, of last week’s John Oliver (The Daily Show) field piece on the UNESCO Palestine funding controversy. It’s “so epic that it takes up two segments, bumped Stewart’s guest…”
The main “interviewee” is Robert Wexler.
John Oliver’s UNESCO Expose Part 1 and 2
Not to be missed.
Brilliant!
I always wonder if Obama leaves his bubble in the office and takes a little vacation with The Daily Show in the evenings.
RE: “Israel is expected to emphasize before the donor countries that despite the growth of recent years, the Palestinian Authority still needs foreign aid to survive.” ~ Weiss
FROM ELI CLIFTON AT ThinkProgress.org, 1/24/12:
SOURCE – link to thinkprogress.org
P.S. I do not know whether Ros-Lehtinen continues to hold up this $190 million in Palestinian aid.
P.S. ALSO SEE: IDF and Ros-Lehtinen share goal: kill any chance for Palestinian state, by Alex Kane, Mondoweiss, 7/22/11
SOURCE – link to mondoweiss.net
The constant use of boldface is hard on the eye. It makes me feel as if I’m reading citations (something I have to make myself do). Have you considered italics? Or even better no added any emphasis at all?
Israel is very funny, because it controls Palestines economy. It could have also said that the Palestinians are not ready to have a state, because it’s occupied.
So what was Israel’s economy like on the day of it’s proclamation?!
1. U.S. tax deductible donations to Israel…are a form of direct aid to Israel.
2. The 3 billion in direct military aid from the USA directly and effectively supports Israel…isn’t it really a form of a yearly welfare check?
3. There are several billion$ more in indirect aid to Israel from the USA.
4. How many other western nations also donate to Israel?
Seems to me, Israel isn’t really self-supporting either…so saying Palestine can’t be a state, is also saying Israel can’t be a state…for the same exact reasons.
CigarGod: “Seems to me, Israel isn’t really self-supporting either [USA's aid] …so saying Palestine can’t be a state [because it cannot support itself], is also saying Israel can’t be a state…for the same exact reasons.” Love it! (Good point.)
Pabelmont:
Thanks.
But, you know the standard come-back: “It’s not aid, it’s investment in America, because we spend the money they give us…on American goods”.
The Palestinian’s could use the same logic…if they were dishonest or illogical: “It’s not aid, it’s an investment. We use the money to buy high starch items from the USA…like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese….which also explains why our rolly polly selves look so well fed.
In the words of Paul Craig Roberts: “The Israeli state relies entirely on coercion and has no diplomacy. It stands isolated in the world except for the US, which sustains Israel’s existence with money, military weapons, and the US veto in the United Nations. Israel survives on life support from the US. A state that cannot exist without outside support is a failed state.”
So a pot calling the kettle black kind of argument.
Also, Palestine was perfectly self sufficient pre-Zionist invasion.
apologies if this is a repeat —
Shawa family: Plight of Palestinian families in exile – Diaspora Mar 13 2012
compare Ms. Shawa’s remembered Gaza with Edwin Black’s depiction:
And Etan Bloom explanations of Arthur Ruppin’s actions in establishing Tel Aviv etc. validate Ms. Shawa’s contention that Jewish settlers deliberately destroyed successful Palestinian commerce in Jaffa:
>> The report specifies a long line of actions Israel has taken to aid the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip …
The Jewish state’s 60+ years, ON-GOING and offensive (i.e., not defensive) campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder doesn’t really constitute “aid”.
In the words of Rachel Corrie, February, 2003:
And when Europe does build Palestinian infrastructure, solar panels, schools etc. Israel comes along and destroys them, with their usual lame excuses, because the last thing they will allow is a functioning Palestinian state. They want a cowed, brutalised, impoverished people, herded into ghettoes, relentlessly humiliated and attacked, dependent on their brutalisers for the smallest concessions which can be withdrawn at any time. The sadism is a deliberate fascistic strategy. Europe should grow some and tell them where to get off, and place punitive sanctions on them.
israel can’t support itself without depending on millions of forced customers to but it’s left over crap. it also doesn’t want to have to pay for all the resources it steals, it depends on free stolen land, free rocks from the quarry to build it’s state, free water, free farmland so it can grow food and sell it to the people who it stole the land from, free olives to make olive oil free vineyard, free everything..all supported by the global community who cannot give anything to or trade anything with palestine without israel being and profiting off being the middle man.
so who can’t afford it? israel!
If you [Zionist Occupier Israel] cut off someone’s legs, you will not be heard to argue for any benefit from their not being able to walk. I might suggest that even such an argument violates the Government of Israel’s duty as an occupier. Out now is the only proper argument in response.
It is so convenient to forget how in 2009 there was an economic boom in the West Bank with growth reaching 8%, higher than in Israel or the West. In 2011 the Palestinian Planning Minister said GDP growth was expected to rise to 12% by 2013.
So what has happened?
In the Haaretz report to which Philip has referred, it states “The current fiscal situation raises doubts about whether the PA will be able to reduce its dependency in foreign aid in the coming years”. Furthermore it has pointed out that the PA’s fiscal management has contributed to the problem. A newspaper article in the South African Jewish Report emphasizes that the PA itself is primarily responsible for it’s demise.
“There are no Palestinian leaders capable of conducting peace talks,” says Bassam Eid, founder and director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.
He says the Palestinian leadership is corrupt and Palestinians are worse off under their administration after Oslo.
Eid also castigated the Palestinian Solidarity Committees around the world for fomenting hatred between Palestinians and Jews that does not exist in Israel or in the territories.
Eid is a former anti-Israel activist turned critic of the violation of Palestinian human rights by its own leaders.
“Eid also castigated the Palestinian Solidarity Committees around the world for fomenting hatred between Palestinians and Jews that does not exist in Israel or in the territories”
link to haaretz.com
Racist comments appeared on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page after the school bus crash near Jerusalem on Thursday in which 10 children died and more than 40 were injured.
Satisfaction that “only Palestinians” were the victims and slogans such as “Death to Arabs, why do we help them?” were posted on the Facebook pages of Netanyahu, Wallah and the Israel Police.
Other comments included “Can we send another truck?” and “I’d send a double-trailer to wipe out all those shits” after the bus overturned when it crashed into a truck.
“Relax, it’s Palestinian children,” someone wrote on Wallah’s Facebook page. Others wrote “Great! Fewer terrorists” and “May there be such buses every day.” Similar comments were posted on the police’s Facebook page, including “When they grew up they’d be terrorists …. God nipped them in the bud.”
These were quite unrepresentative and suspicious comments which were promptly removed.
More typical are comments like for the article of military dog biting Palestinian protester “Good doggy!”. And if you see MODERATED comments in ynet or jpost, the level of hatred is totally depressing.
It is so convenient to forget how in 2009 there was an economic boom in the West Bank with growth reaching 8%, higher than in Israel or the West. In 2011 the Palestinian Planning Minister said GDP growth was expected to rise to 12% by 2013.
The World Bank and IMF reports didn’t overlook the so-called economic boom. They both concluded the economy was being run for the benefit of the illegal Israeli settlers.
FYI, Israel has a GDP of over $2oo billion, while Palestine’s GDP is still under $5 billion. The differences in the sizes of the two populations and their educational levels don’t account for those differences either. For example, Dr Hassan A El-Najjar has noted that:
What chutspa.Why can’t somebody help this guy .He can’t live because i shot him.
As Israeli actions (and claims) become more and more outrageous, the anger in knowledgeable people (and governments) must be growing to a boiling point. There are two possible outcomes (assuming steadily continuing grotesque Israeli misbehavior): either [1] the nations finally take stern action against Israel (like the cook turning off the fire under a pressure cooker before it explodes); or else [2] the whole situation explodes — going from what we have today, which seems manageable, to something so ugly that it cannot longer be ignored, let AIPAC and its European allies do as they may — something like massive deaths, massive expulsions.
In other words, as a car drives toward a sturdy brick wall at 60 MPH, it is sure to stop, but the only question is whether it will stop by smashing into the brick wall ([2] above) or by the driver putting on the brakes for a more gentle stop ([1] above).
Israel’s plan, however, is to “boil the frog” (the Palestinians, but also the USA and EU) so gently that the moment for taking stern action is never recognized. Frogs are not very clever in such a situation — as we’ve noticed.
You goota love the Israelis.
First they argue that they cannot negotiate with the Palestinians because the leadership is split between Fatah and Hamas. Then when Fatah and Hamas talk about a unity government, they insist they cannot deal with Fatah if Fatah is making peace with Hamas.
Then they order Fatah to launch a coup to overthow Hamas.
Now this crap!!
Those Israelis are so smart. But they never figured out what to do with the Palestinians after they strangled their state.
40 years after Golda Meir said there was no such thing as a Palestinian the word comes up 115 million times on Google.
40 years after Golda Meir said there was no such thing as a Palestinian the word comes up 115 million times on Google.
Jimmy Wales has the same problem. See the entry for Arab Citizens of Israel. link to en.wikipedia.org
The Zionists who propagandize so much about “the Jews from Arab Lands”, do not consider them to be “Arab citizens of Israel” (although there can be no Israeli nationality separate from the Jewish people according to HCJ 630/70 Tamarin v. State of Israel [1970] IsrSC 26(1) 197).
In fact, there is no recognized “Arab nationality” anywhere else in the world, except for the people registered as such by the government of Israel – which denies the Palestinians their own nationality for purposes of their apartheid policy, e.g. the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them:
–http://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/02/2-10/crime-apartheid.xml
For a fuller explanation, see “A racism outside of language: Israel’s apartheid”, by Saree Makdisi, in the Pambazuka News, 2010-03-11, Issue 473
“Jimmy Wales has the same problem. See the entry for Arab Citizens of Israel. link to en.wikipedia.org”
Oh, boy, anyone looking for decent truthful information from Ziopedia is in for a shock… The place is lousy with hasbarists.