{"id":8816,"date":"2011-07-16T10:28:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T06:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=8816"},"modified":"2011-07-16T12:35:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:35:59","slug":"a-confused-strategy-how-the-palestinian-authority-sold-out-palestinian-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/a-confused-strategy-how-the-palestinian-authority-sold-out-palestinian-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"How the PA Sold Out Palestinian Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you happen to be a Palestinian government employee, chances are you will receive only half your usual salary this month. The other half will only be available when international donors find it in their hearts to make up for the huge shortage of funds currently facing the Palestinian Authority (PA).<\/p>\n

With a deficit standing at around $640 million, the PA government of Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is experiencing one of its worst ever financial crises. However, the Palestinian economy is not a real economy by universally recognized standards. It survives largely on handouts by donor countries. These funds have spared Israel much of its financial responsibility as an occupying power under the stipulations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They have also propped up a Palestinian leadership that tries to secure its own survival by serving the interests of major donors.<\/p>\n

The funds, however, are now drying up. This could be due to a political attempt to dissuade PA President Mahmoud Abbas from seeking recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN next September. PA officials have been greatly angered by the shift, blaming donor countries – including Arab countries – for failing to honor their financial commitments.<\/p>\n

Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary-General of the PLO, spoke of an \u2018unprecedented\u2019 crisis to Voice of Palestine Radio. \u201cThe situation has become very complicated for the Palestinian Authority because of the failure of the Arab countries to fulfill their financial promises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fayyad suggested it was an \u2018irony\u2019 that the current crisis comes at a time when the PA had reduced its reliance on foreign aid by almost half \u2013 from $1.8 billion in 2008 to $970m \u2013 according to the Jerusalem Post. Now, even this half is being slashed, as only $331m of the pledged $970m has been received.<\/p>\n

Top PA officials are yet to openly connect the dots between the withholding of funds and the political reality in Palestine. Fayyad insisted that \u201cthe crisis does not cast doubt on our preparedness for the establishment of the state,\u201d while Abed Rabbo asserted that the crisis would not halt PA efforts to seek an independent statehood along pre-1967 lines.<\/p>\n

The PA undoubtedly understands the financial cost of any political adventure that is deemed unfavorable to Israel – especially since they are constantly reminded of the \u2018historic ties\u2019 and \u2018shared values\u2019 that unite Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n

One such reminder was the huge margin at the US House of Representatives in July 2007. It was an \u201coverwhelming 406-6 vote,\u201d reported AFP, where US lawmakers \u201cwarned the Palestinians that they risk cuts in US aid if they pursue UN recognition of a future state not defined in direct talks with Israel.\u201d The message echoed another vote on a similar resolution in the US Senate.<\/p>\n

Such unquestioning support for Israel by the US serves to make life much easier for Israeli diplomats. They now need to focus less on the US than on European countries that have promised to back the PA statehood initiative.<\/p>\n

The PA is of course very vulnerable to threats, despite their insistence to the contrary. Once the US and others start to wave the withholding-of-funds card, any solid PA political program usually falters into perplexing and even self-defeating political babble. The lack of certainty in the PA\u2019s political language could be attributed to fear that a single decision to withhold funds coupled with an Israeli decision to hold taxes collected on behalf of the PA, the government would not last for more than mere weeks.<\/p>\n

One ought to remember that the West Bank and East Jerusalem are Occupied Territories. Deprived from even a semblance of territorial sovereignty and presiding over a donation-based national economy, the PA has no political independence outside the permissible margins allowed by the US and Israel, countries that are hell-bent on defeating the Palestinian national project.<\/p>\n

The PA has been grappling with this strange situation since its inception in 1994. Being a guardian of Palestinian national interests and simultaneously satisfying Israel\u2019s political interests and US expectations is an impossible feat. That enigma has almost always been settled at the expense of the Palestinians themselves. The latest casualty has been the unity deal signed between Hamas and the PA\u2019s ruling party, Fatah, in Egypt on April 27.<\/p>\n

The unity was essential for a cohesive political program to be formed towards Palestinian rights and possible statehood. When the agreement was officially signed early May, it was assumed that various committees would be able to quickly finalize the process aimed at setting a date for future elections and bringing to a complete end the four-year feud between the two factions.<\/p>\n

However, a counter Israeli strategy was immediately forged. On May 4, as Palestinians celebrated their unity, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the counter campaign from London. \u201cWhat happened today in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism,\u201d he told reporters (as reported by Reuters). The US echoed Netanyahu\u2019s foreboding words, EU countries responded \u2018cautiously\u2019, and the arm-twisting began.<\/p>\n

Once again, Abbas and the PA were faced with a dilemma around priorities. National unity in Palestine was to suffer yet another blow. \u201cThe Palestinian president does not want to wage two diplomatic battles for recognition of an alliance with the Islamic militants and for a U.N. nod to statehood at the same time,\u201d said a PLO official (as quoted by the Associated Press and Ha\u2019aretz).<\/p>\n

The UN vote \u201cwould be a largely symbolic step that the Palestinians hope will nonetheless improve their leverage against Israel,\u201d according to the AP report. \u2018Symbolic\u2019 maybe, but is a priority that Abbas feels comes ahead of urgently needed national unity and a unified political program.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, PA forces \u2013 trained and armed by the US and in constant coordination with the Israeli army \u2013 reportedly arrested 68 Hamas members in recent weeks, according to a report by Maan News Agency, citing a Hamas statement.<\/p>\n

While Abbas is now leading a diplomatic mission to drum up support for his UN initiative, Fayyad is trying to collect funds to prop up the PA economy for a few more months. Meanwhile, Palestinian national unity – without which Palestinians will remain hopelessly fragmented and vulnerable to external pressures and foreign priorities \u2013 remains merely ink on paper.<\/p>\n

– Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), available on Amazon.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAMZY BAROUD: With a deficit standing at around $640 million, the PA government is experiencing one of its worst ever financial crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,83,82,119,60],"tags":[3207,2275,378,18300,1104,575,278,7785,227,3206,18311,2605,726,630,7788,192,18297,3605,3208,690,6641,1747,4302,2853,1808,2204,4057,2465,387,18302,6833,580,3217,4119],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}