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.
“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.
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”
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/HumanitarianAid/Palestinians/Israel_Report_AHLC_March_2012.htm
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.
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 – http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/01/24/410668/rep-keith-ellison-urges-congress-to-continue-funding-palestinian-sesame-street/
P.S. I do not know whether Ros-Lehtinen continues to hold up this $190 million in Palestinian aid.