By Barry Rubin
SkyNews reporter Tim Marshall points out what other reporters don’t…point out.
“There are well over 200 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza, and 30% of the GDP here comes from international aid. Palestinians are among the most foreign aid funded people in the world and the place is awash with money….
“The billions that pour in here mean the Palestinian Authority does not need to try very hard to deliver the services expected by voters, it also stifles the private sector, inflates wages and causes an internal ‘brain drain’….
“No Palestinian business can compete with NGOs which routinely triple what a local firm would pay….
“`Palestine is the best-kept secret in the aid industry,’” a medical NGO worker recently told This Week In Palestine, `People need field experience and Palestine sounds cool and dangerous because it can be described as a war zone, but in reality it’s quite safe and has all the comforts that internationals want.’”
So in other words, the NGOs have every interest in continuing this situation, a lot of Westerners are making great money, the Palestinians are subsidized to an extent that much-worse-off Third World people can only dream about, AND they are portrayed as heroic, suffering victims, too!
And what does the Palestinian Authority have to do in exchange for all this loot and free propaganda? Absolutely nothing. Not make peace with Israel. Not reject a deal with Hamas. Not stop breaking all of its prior commitments by ending its drive for unilateral independence. Not cease incitement to kill Israelis or teaching its people that all of Israel is rightfully theirs. Not face a boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Not worry about having its officials arrested for involvement with terrorism when they visit certain European countries. Not face hate and intimidation directed at its nationals and defenders in the West [In contrast, Jews can no longer go to Belgium's main university without harassment]. Not face public criticism from Western governments. And not even have to negotiate with Israel for the last 2.5 years.
They don’t even have to face an “occupation” as they did between 1967 and 1994-1996.
All of these points are true and demonstrable facts. Yet because of the mass media’s virtual refusal to deal with this framework, they can be ignored by policymaking and intellectual elites.
This is the worst crisis in the world, the greatest oppression, and the greatest suffering?
Truly unbelievable, these facts need to out in the msm. Mr. Rubin you say many westerners are making money off this, just wondering if you could name a few. Want to know if I can boycott.
Those subsidies that support the Palestinian economy are also subsidizing the Israeli economy in a sort of roundabout way.
Many Israeli companies and certainly many Israeli individuals take full advantage of the fact that production costs and labor costs in the PA areas are a fraction of what Israeli production and labor costs. Many products that are manufactured or food stuffs that are grown in the Palestinian areas imported into Israel and sold at Israeli prices for immense profits. It is also true that goods manufactured in Europe and America which are imported to be sold in the PA areas many times end up on Israeli store shelves and are sold without the requisite Israeli import taxes and duties having been paid and again they are sold for immense profits for the Israeli seller.
Dr. Rubin you are correct that the whole system is corrupt. The international financial involvment in the Palestinian areas has corrupted the PA, the Palestinians, the importers, the other middlemen, and of course, the Israelis almost making it undesirable for the Palestinian Israeli conflict to be settled. Too many Palestinians and Israelis, not to mention corrupt middlemen, are making huge profits from the situation.
Abbas does not want to negotiate a state because what he and most Palestinians want is the status quo. The UN declaration bid is mere theatrics, A diplomatic intifada.
Western leftists are also invested in the status quo for emotional reasons. They flipped when it looked like negotiations might be getting somewhere. If you read their articles and blog comments they are totally frustrated now that Israel has all but eliminated the blockade and occupation. They can only recirculate old canards and talk about history. When you read a blog thread about a current event and someone brings up the USS Liberty you know they have come to the end of their rope.
Meanwhile, children of Africa are dying…
Not sure if facts can change the mind if believers. Still, it would be good if articles like this one would have been published with figures and references, spread globally and repeatedly.