In the Name of Statehood
(snip)
This may sound attractive to some, but Fayyad has neither the political clout nor the financial means to propose such far-reaching plans without a green light from Washington or Tel Aviv. He aims to project an image of a competent Palestinian administration already mastering the craft of running a state. He boasts, for instance, that the PA he heads has worked to "develop effective institutions of government based on the principles of good governance, accountability and transparency". But what is really taking shape in the West Bank today is a police state, where all sources of opposition or resistance - real or suspected - to either the PA regime or the Israeli occupation are being systematically repressed by US-funded and trained Palestinian "security forces" in full coordination with Israel. Gaza remains under tight siege because of its refusal to submit to this regime.
In describing the Palestinian utopia he hopes to create, Fayyad's plan declares that: "Palestine will be a stable democratic state with a multi-party political system. Transfer of governing authority is smooth, peaceful and regular in accordance with the will of the people, expressed through free and fair elections conducted in accordance with the law."
A perfect opportunity to demonstrate such an exemplary transfer would have been right after the January 2006 election which, as the entire world knows, Hamas won fairly and cleanly. Instead, those who monopolise the Palestinian Authority leadership today colluded with outside powers first to cripple and overthrow the elected Hamas government and then the "national unity government" formed by the Mecca Agreement in early 2007, entrenching the current internal Palestinian division. (Fayyad's own party won just 2 per cent at the 2006 election, and his appointment as prime minister by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas was never approved by the Palestinian Legislative Council - as required by law - dozens of whose elected members remain behind Israeli prison bars).
From 1994 to 2006, more than $8 billion were pumped into the Palestinian economy, making Palestinians the most aid-dependent people on earth, as Anne Le More showed in her important book, "International Assistance to the Palestinians after Oslo: Political Guilt; Wasted Money" (London, Routledge, March 2008).
The PA received this aid ostensibly to build Palestinian institutions, improve socio-economic development and support the creation of an independent state. The result, however, is that Palestinians are more destitute and aid-dependent than ever before, their institutions are totally dysfunctional and their state remains a distant fantasy.
PA corruption and mismanagement played a large part in squandering this wealth, but by far the largest wealth destroyer was and remains the Israeli occupation. Contrary to what Fayyad imagines, one cannot "end the occupation, despite the occupation"....
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