Memorandum submitted by the Funding for
Peace Coalition (FPC)
1. The Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC)
is an ad hoc group of concerned citizens, interested in peace
and alarmed at the absence of adequate controls and of fundamental
responsibility in the management of European aid to the Middle
East.
2. Once again, we of the FPC commend the
commission for the inquiry. There is a clear moral imperative
to assist the Palestinian people out of their current state of
poverty. There is no doubt in our minds that international aid
to the Palestinian people is a vital element of hope that peace
can be nurtured in this troubled area of the Middle East.
3. We refer the Committee to past submissions
by the FPC to IDC inquiries, and to our March 2007 submission
to the House of Lords Select Committee.[21]
4. We note that while certain progress has
been made toward peace between the Palestinian Authority and the
Israelis since our last submission, several disturbing elements
have remained or become severely aggravated. Aside from recent
alarming statements in Arabic by the Palestinian President,[22]
which call into question the seriousness with which the PA desires
peace, violence continues to emanate from all elements of the
Palestinian political scene, both internally and against Israeli
citizens,
5. Of greater concern to the FPC is that
there is little evidence of adequate controls and transparency
over the Palestinian Authority Budget or over international aid.
The situation in Gaza has spun out of control, with indications
that the Hamas take-over there could very easily spill over into
the West Bank. Past events have shown that pouring money and resources
into the Abbas government will not, on their own, remedy this
problem.
6. As evidence of this lack of controls,
we refer committee members to the recent internal report presented
to the Palestinian President: "The Investigative Committee
on the Matter of the Failure of the Confrontation with the Illegal
Armed Militias", which was led by Tayeb Abdel Rahim. Amongst
the catalogue of disasters, this Palestinian report details financial
waste and corruption, along with government incompetence. The
heart of the failings commences with the President personally,
which should serve as a warning to potential Western donors.
7. Similarly, the TIM has been replaced
with PEGASE, which returns to a formula of directly substituting
payments for PA salaries, social benefits and other obligations
with international aid funds.
8. Aside from there being no evidence of
an improvement in the controls over direct aid to the Palestinian
Authority that existed in the past, by paying salaries and social
benefits, the international community is directly supporting the
"terrorist insurance schemes" that we referred to in
the past. Here, we remind the commission:
(a) Many Palestinian terrorists have been
incorporated into the PA payroll, with the payroll itself still
inflated and out of control as a result.
(b) Terrorist activity by PA employees continues,
meaning that terrorist salaries are being funded by the international
community. Recent examples include Fatah members Amar Taha and
Ali Dandanes who shot and killed Israelis Ahikam Amihai and David
Rubin near Hebron. Another example is the case of PA Security
Force members/brothers Dafer and Abdullah Birham who shot Israeli
civilian Ido Zoldan in December 2007. Under investigation, they
implicated fellow PA National Security employee Fadi Jama of involvement
in the plot.
(c) The PA pays a raft of social benefits,
largely administered by the Prisoners' Affairs department, to
terrorists who have been caught or killed in the act and to their
families,
(d) While it can be argued that these various
employment and social benefit schemes are designed to "keep
the terrorists off the street", the FPC believes that this
is a dubious moral argument. This is a de facto "insurance
scheme", encouraging terrorism. Further, terrorists who receive
these benefits and even receive amnesties in various deals to
encourage peace often are involved in future terrorist activities,
Specific recent examples include the brothers Ibrahim and Y'abl
Mesemyia, who together with three other "pardoned" terrorists
were caught on 27 February of this year, conducting a terrorist
act while they were supposedly incarcerated in a PA detention
facility.[23]
9. In addition, the funding of the education
system (whether directly or via UN agencies), without insisting
on significant reforms, promotes and gives added credence to the
anti-peace messages being engendered in the next, impressionable
generation. A clear example of this was the slaying of eight seminary
students recently in Jerusalem, an act motivated by hate and celebrated
joyously in the Palestinian territories.
10. The FPC demands the same standards as
applied to any other payment by central government to domestic
or overseas organizations; strict transparency and accountability,
ensuring beyond all reasonable doubt that the money will not be
abused nor contribute to violence. Neither previously nor today
can that rule be seen to be enforced. Neither political correctness
nor expediency justifies the flouting of these basic laws of governance.
11. The Commission has requested specific
input regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza: The situation
is very hard to judge from afar, without detailed investigation
and visits not guided by vested interests, While there is clear
hardship, it is difficult to judge the extent of manipulation
by the Hamas regime. Firstly, there is clear evidence of Hamas
manipulation of the messages being transmitted from Gaza. Photographs
of candlelight demonstrations with street lights blazing, candle-light
meetings with daylight peeking through drawn curtains, babies
in supposedly electricity deprived incubators/while the monitor
is operating, "starving" Palestinians bursting the border
to Egypt bringing back luxury electrical items they have purchased
etc. etc. do not inspire confidence in the reports of humanitarian
crises, [It was subsequently proven that Israel temporarily reduced
the electricity supply by only 1% for a few days]. And with reports
of Hamas seizing humanitarian supplies to distribute to their
military wing instead of distribution to the people, it is hard
to estimate the real extent and causes of the hardships.
12. While the desire for open borders is
clear and just, it must be balanced by the genuine security needs
of Israel. The recent breach in the border with Egypt has been
exploited to import advanced weaponry and foreign trained operatives,
directly resulting in a significant escalation in violence against
Israeli civilians, in turn resulting in retaliatory action which
harms Palestinian civilians, Attacks on the border crossings themselves,
as well as their exploitation of even humanitarian shipments for
the smuggling of weaponry are also an obvious cause of the restrictions
on free transport of goods.
13. With Israel claiming that the borders
allow the passage of humanitarian supplies and with a shared border
with Egypt that should also allow passage of such supplies, the
only thing that can be said with certainty is that there is plenty
of cash and opportunity to replenish the never-ending supply of
weaponry.
14. With clear war-crimes being committed
by Gazan military groups/indiscriminate shooting of rockets at
civilian targets, using civilians as human shields, turning Gazan
civilians into deliberate collateral damage in the event of reprisals
or preventative military act—it is very clear that it is
in the power of the Palestinian people to end immediately their
hardships by simply stopping these inhuman acts.
15. Having said all of the above, it is
clear that UK foreign policy, which can be supported by the judicious
allocation of foreign aid, must be directed in a fashion that
corrects rather than exacerbates the underlying violence. To this
end, we reproduce here our recommendations in this area:
Recommendation No 1:
Future help needs to be delivered in a transparent
and accountable manner, directed towards ethically defensible
projects. An independent and public monitoring system should immediately
be introduced for all funds provided to the Palestinians,
It is difficult to justify pouring more resources
into politicised NGOs or even UNRWA. As former UNRWA Commissioner-General,
Peter Hansen, declared in 2005: "There is no doubt that,
at some point, the Palestinian Authority should take over all
of UNRWA's capacity in Gaza and the West Bank,"
Recommendation No 2:
When considering infrastructure projects, donors
are advised to consider the "Pound for Pound" concept.
It will also encourage the local populace to take pride in its
own economic revival and not rely on long-term charity.
The alternative was exemplified when Mr Wolfensohn
sought overseas investors to purchase the greenhouses in Gaza
left by the Israeli settlers, Once the Israelis had ceased to
protect the region, Palestinians ransacked the agricultural facilities.
It can be surmised that if the investors had included local personalities,
such malicious waste may not have occurred.
Recommendation No 3:
The UK/EU should consider the creation of a
seed fund to co-invest in a growing number of Palestinian start-ups.
The ExpoTech 2005 in Ramallah, sponsored by the Palestinian Information
Technology Association, demonstrated that there are clear opportunities
for investment, which will encourage both employment opportunities
and long-term economic growth.
Recommendation No 4:
All investment recommendations should carry
a pre-requisite of decommissioning of militias and private armies,
Both in Northern Ireland and in Afghanistan, this stipulation
has provided a greater sense of internal stability for the local
population. It has also decreased the potential for distortions
in the judicial, financial and democratic processes.
David Winter
Spokesperson
Funding for Peace Coalition
12 March 2008
21 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldselect/ldeucom/132/132we04.htm Back
22
http://prnw.org.il/Bulletins_feb2008.htrnlb280208 Back
23
http://worldnetdaily/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57466 Back
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