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posted February 21, 2006 at 11:30 a.m.

Arab nations say they will offset funds withheld by Israel

But despite statements of support for the Palestinian Authority, Arab League leaders fail to reach an agreement on a funding plan.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

Arab and Muslim leaders said Monday that they will find ways to provide funding to a Hamas-led Palestinian government. The Daily Star of Lebanon reports that the Arab leaders made the announcement following the Israeli government's decision to withhold from the Palestinian Authority (PA) the $50 million a month it collects in tax revenues. The tax funds amount to one-third of the national budget for the PA.

Arab League foreign ministers met in Algiers in an attempt to revive a funding plan they originally agreed on in 2002 that would provide the PA with some $50 million a month, while the Muslim Brotherhood said it is launching a worldwide donation campaign for a future government. It is unclear whether Arab governments will be able to fill the void in the foreign aid that has provided the bulk of the Palestinians' $1.9 billion annual budget.
"Cutting the aid is very serious issue. It is an attempt to starve the Palestinians and a recipe for chaos," Mohammad Sobeih, the deputy of Arab League chief Amr Moussa, told the Associated Press. Sobeih said the Arab League can guarantee that all the money donated to the Palestinian Authority "will go to those who really deserve it."

But the Associated Press reports that despite their comments, the Arab nations failed to come to an agreement on how to get new funds to Palestinians, and argued about the level of commitment from each state. A final decision on Palestinian funding was expected at a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.


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But even as the Arab League debated how to provide new funds, other Muslim groups indicated they wished to help. The AP, in a piece carried in The Taipei Times, reports that the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, wants to provide institutional and financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he had already spoken to several OIC leaders who "want to help."

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the Muslim Brotherhood, which has organizations in 86 countries, announced it would launch a donation campaign for the new PA. And Al Jazeera reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on all Muslims worldwide to provide money for the Palestinian Authority.

During talks on Monday with Hamas, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Khalid Mishaal, the movement's political leader: "We must make a plan so all Muslims will be able to supply the Palestinians with a yearly financial aid package."
"This voluntary gesture will create a spiritual bond among Muslims and the Palestinian cause and have a great impact on the world," he said.

The Swedish news site The Local reports that Sweden's state-run aid group, the International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), said in a statement it would provide an extra $6.4 million to the United Nations' aid programs in the Palestinian territories.

"According to the fourth Geneva convention, the occupying power has a particular responsibility to support and ensure the human dignity of the occupied," [Peter Lundberg of the group's humanitarian unit] said.
"Since Israel is not living up to its responsibility under international law, large parts of the Palestinian population are now completely dependent on international humanitarian aid," Lundberg added.

The Arab News reports that former US President Jimmy Carter, in a Washington Post opinion piece published Monday, cautioned the US and Israel not to punish the Palestinian people for electing Hamas. Mr. Carter said "any tacit or formal collusion between Israel and the US to disrupt the process by punishing the Palestinian people could be counterproductive and have devastating consequences."

Noting with disdain Israel's decision to withhold over $50 million per month that the Palestinians earn from customs and tax revenue, Carter said an even greater aggravation by the Israelis "is their decision to hinder movement of elected Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council members through any of more than a hundred Israeli checkpoints around and throughout the Palestinian territories." Carter also criticized the Bush Administration for not agreeing to bypass the government and allow funds be channeled through NGOs.

Carter, whose human rights group helped monitor the recent elections, said that despite the success of Hamas, President Mahmoud Abbas still enjoys considerable success in important areas like the constitution and security.

Amira Hass, the Ramallah correspondent for the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, writes in the Los Angeles Times, that by withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, Israel is just giving "the Palestinians another reason to regard Israel as an aggressive and repressive occupying power."

What debilitates and cripples the Palestinian economy is Israel's heavy, systematic restrictions on movement within the occupied territories �� hundreds of roadblocks and military checkpoints that delay, prolong and sabotage normal economic activity and, hence, potential tax revenues. The Palestinian Authority cannot compensate for the "lost" – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "stolen" – tax revenues.
Its Ministry of Health, for example, has been unable to pay its contractors for hospital food, equipment or medicine for three months, and is $22 million in debt. Now, with Israel hijacking an additional $50 million or so each month, the ministry will not be able to pay the salaries of its 13,000 employees. The same is true with the approximately 40,000 employees of the Ministry of Education.

Finally, the Press Association of Britain reports that acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was not ruling out the possibility of Israel holding peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, despite the election of Hamas.

Olmert told Israel TV that the chances of reaching a "quick agreement" with the Palestinians were smaller now that Hamas was in charge. "But the hope has not disappeared, and I am responsible for both things, the battle against Hamas and maintaining hope, the chance to reach an agreement," Olmert said.