A
Palestinian Authority Steeped
In Paralysis And Corruption
By Hasan Abu
Nimah
The Electronic
Intifada
19 February 2004
The Palestinian
Authority (PA) is in a critical and untenable state. Israel has destroyed
much of the fragile structure built as part of the Oslo process, including
the Palestinian security forces. It has reoccupied most of the little
land which has been placed under the control of the Authority. Israel
has nearly bankrupted the PA by withholding taxes collected on behalf
of the Palestinians. And it has held the PA leader, Yasser Arafat, in
a humiliating siege, which has become for Israel an "acceptable"
alternative to deportation.
Israel seems to
be comfortable with a totally ineffective PA which is still officially
responsible for the burdensome costs of the occupation. This situation
has enabled Israel to blame the Authority, rather than the occupation
for daily Palestinian suffering, and for the ever deteriorating security
situation.
The purpose of the
frequent Israeli leaks that the PA is about to collapse seems to be
to disguise this reality. The PA has been reduced from a national liberation
movement and state-building entity to nothing more than a security agent
and scapegoat for the occupier. The PA should not allow this situation
to continue, but it shows no sign that it is capable or willing to change.
That Israel can
conduct daily raids and killings, demolish homes, arrest citizens, impose
closures, destroy trees and farmland, and build colonies and walls unimpeded
exposes the utter failure of the PA to offer even minimal protection
to its people, or at least stand aside and allow them to defend themselves.
In fact, the PA
does not dare raise a finger in the face of Israeli aggression; it limits
itself to harmless protests that whatever atrocity Israel has committed
harms the non-existent "peace process." Having repeatedly
renounced violence and condemned it when used by other Palestinians,
the PA has also delegitimized and undermined the basic right to self-defence
that is recognized in every legal system on earth.
Already on the defensive
politically, the PA's position has been further eroded externally, particularly
as a result of its inability to meet an undertaking to dismantle "terrorist"
groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the military wing of Fatah.
With so little room
for action on the home front, PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia recently
embarked on a tour of Arab and European capitals. Apart from travel
for its own sake, as a pleasant alternative to the stagnation and political
bankruptcy at home, Qureia might have been motivated by two slim hopes.
First, he may have sought to alleviate a severe financial crisis by
holding out the hat to European and Arab donors. Second, he was lobbying
for help to resuscitate the comatose peace process. Qureia surely recognizes
that, under present conditions, resumption of a peace process cannot
lead to peace. Rather, the appearance of a peace process is enough to
temporarily restore to the PA its raison d'etre.
Qureia's mission
met with little tangible success, although he did gain some symbolic
verbal condemnations of Sharon's apartheid wall. Otherwise he heard
the usual American and Israeli-inspired refrain that the Palestinians
"must do more" to dismantle "terrorist" organizations
and curb violence. He was also advised to finally hold his much-postponed
meeting with Sharon, something that would do neither him nor the Palestinian
people any good.
Meanwhile, the PA
was further undermined by the eruption of new corruption scandals, involving
Qureia and other key leaders.
While the Prime
Minister was complaining to European leaders about the Israeli Wall
and its devastating effect on Palestinians, the Associated Press (AP)
reported that a cement company owned by Qureia's family and based in
his home town of Abu Dis, was selling cement to Israeli settlements
and for the construction of the very same wall. In an 11 February report,
the AP cited Israel's Channel Ten TV showing cement mixers leaving Qureia's
"Al Quds" cement company and heading towards the nearby Israeli
settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. The TV report also said that Qureia was
supplying cement to build concrete slabs for the Israeli barrier right
outside his Abu Dis home.
A Palestinian lawmaker
quoted by the AP as said "there was evidence that Qureia was selling
cement to Ma'ale Adumim," and that his suspicion was strengthened
by the fact that Qureia had transferred ownership of the company to
another member of his family just a few months ago.
Unsurprisingly,
the allegations were vehemently denied by Qureia, but a Palestinian
parliamentary committee is investigating the matter. Jamil Tarifi, a
Palestinian Cabinet minister is also "among those being investigated,"
according to unnamed Palestinian officials quoted by the AP report.
If these allegations
were not shocking enough, France announced that it is investigating
money transfers totalling 9 million euros ($11.5 million) from Swiss
banks to private accounts owned by Suha Arafat, the wife of the Palestinian
leader. The French concern over possible money laundering may not be
the most disturbing aspect of the affair.
What remains to
be explained is why the Palestinian First Lady is living in Paris in
the first place instead of remaining with her people and sharing their
plight. She was happy enough to be in the Occupied Territories when
Hilary Clinton and other dignitaries would come to pay their respects.
And where did this money come from if it is not money that rightfully
belongs to the Palestinian people? And why should such an enormous sum
be allocated to one small Palestinian family -- Mrs. Arafat and her
daughter -- if not to sustain a lavish Parisian lifestyle? The same
amount of money could support almost 6,000 Palestinian families for
an entire year, given that many survive on no more than $6 per day.
Suha Arafat has
indeed addressed some of these questions, although she seems to have
missed the point entirely. Quoted in Al Hayat newspaper on 12 February,
Suha asked, "What is so strange for the Palestinian president to
send any amount of money to his family and his wife who is protecting
the Palestinian interests abroad, and the money came and will come legally?"
What seems normal
to Mrs. Arafat is shocking to ordinary Palestinians. Can their leaders
really think they are so stupid? And can anyone point to any valuable
services Suha Arafat has performed on behalf of her people? Had the
bank transfers not been revealed, no one would have known anything about
her.
Yet neither Qureia's
nor Mrs. Arafat's denials will do much to clear the thickening clouds
of suspicion and mistrust that hang over the PA. Neither does the ongoing
parliamentary investigation offer much hope, in the light of earlier
experience.
Over six years ago,
a similar Palestinian parliamentary panel conducted an investigation
of the PA corruption. The nine-member panel of the Palestinian Legislative
Council had, at the time, acted upon the Palestinian State Controller's
report that found that nearly half of the authority's $326 million 1997
budget had been lost through corruption or financial mismanagement.
The panel
called for the dismissal of Arafat's entire Cabinet and at least for
one minister to stand trial; it called for charges against other implicated
ministers, whose names were not disclosed, and for putting several others
under investigation. The worst mismanagement cited was in the Civil
Affairs Ministry, headed by Tarifi, and the Planning Ministry, headed
by Nabil Shaath, according to a report in The Times (30 July, 1997).
Six years later,
Tarifi is still in the cabinet, and the subject of a renewed investigation.
Shaath has been in the cabinet continuously and advanced to ever higher
positions. An administration which loudly brags that it has been democratically
elected (almost ten years ago) should be able to observe the simplest
principles of democracy: when you fail you leave. The good thing about
democracy is that it grants the people the right to evaluate the performance
of the leaders they elect and to vote them out of office once proved
incompetent.
The PA, which has
only been reaping failures, indulging in opportunism and corruption,
dedicating all its effort to its own survival at any a cost, even at
the expense of the rights of its people, is neither leaving voluntarily
nor is it allowing years-overdue elections to decide its fate. It is
high time that, one way or another, this failed leadership should let
the beleaguered Palestinians choose new leaders.
The writer is a former Permanent Representative of Jordan at the UN
and former ambassador. He contributed this article to The Electronic
Intifada.