Action needs to be taken to end Palestinian poverty

Please send all spare money to poor of Palestine. Bombs very expensive.

Arafat's corruption: the source of Palestinian suffering?

By Tariq El-Fahad

According to surveys by the research center of Tabenkin, the West Bank per capita gross domestic product (GDP) before the Oslo accord in 1993 was approximately $3,500, and in Gaza, about $2,800.

Now, the per capita GDP for both territories is around $1,300. And U.N. Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen says that 30 percent of the Palestinian people live on less than $2.10 a day.

Before Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) entered the territories in May of 1994, the Palestinian per capita GDP in the West Bank was about 40 percent of the $ 8,000 Israeli per capita GDP for the same period, and in the 1990s, the economic development of the West Bank exceeded that of Israel.

If that trend would have been allowed to continue, the West Bank's GDP would have reached at least $7,000 by now, similar to Saudi Arabia, and 700 percent higher than the average in other oil-devoid Arab states such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco.

In 1990, the CIA estimated that the PLO had between $ 8 billion to $ 14 billion worth of assets generated from 5 percent tax on every Palestinian working in Arab countries. However, according to a 1993 British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) report published on the eve of the famous "hand shake" on the White House lawn, most of the PLO's assets originated from "donations, extortion, payoffs, illegal arms dealing, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, etc."

A General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation of Mr. Arafat in November 1995 was kept secret, due to "national security interest." Subsequent to the "hand shake" on the White House lawn on September 1993, Mr. Arafat received at least $3 billion more from the United States and the international donor community, again, without any serious demand for accountability.

The present condition of the Palestinians in the territories is a grim affirmation that becoming the official leader of the Palestinian people did nothing to change Mr. Arafat's old habits. Shortly after the current Intifada began, Arab donor countries pledged to give $ 1 billion to the Palestinian Authority to ease the economic hardship of the Palestinian people. However, the Arab donors' past experience with money given to Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority prompted them to demand, according to reports in Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily, that "Chairman Arafat show complete transparency in the funds" and a detailed report on how it was spent. Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority declined to comply, and the Arab donors suspended the transfer of the money "for fear that the money will end up in the wrong pockets."
The rapidly growing, very visible social disparity in the territories rows of ostentatious villas and late model Mercedes-Benz automobiles for Mr. Arafat's cronies while most Palestinians live in dismal conditions began to threaten Mr. Arafat's leadership.

Igniting another Intifada enabled Mr. Arafat to redefine the economic decline in the territories as "sacrifices" to mobilize against the "zionist enemy," while blaming the victim of the violence, Israel. In 1994, British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) sources asserted that following Oslo, the PLO's illegal activities actually increased. No Robin Hood, Mr. Arafat kept the loot for himself and his cronies, hiding large amounts of money in Swiss and other secret bank accounts, and making large investments in real estate and industry all over the world.

At the same time he has done nothing to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians he allegedly collected the money for. Never having to account for the billions he had stolen, he continues to claim poverty. Now the cat is out of the bag: The Palestinian Authority has admitted that the current Intifada was planned in detail last July following the failed Camp David Summit. Imad Faluji, the Palestinian Authority's communications minister, told a PLO rally in the Ein Hilwe refugee camp in South Lebanon last Friday that, as part of that plan, all the PLO "military action groups of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are returning to work to escalate the fighting against Israel."

Mr. Arafat has successfully claimed that Israel causes the economic hardship suffered by the Palestinian people. These claims are based on two fundamentally false assumptions: One, that Israel, rather than Mr. Arafat's misgovernance and corruption, is responsible for the economic collapse; and, two, that on some level, there is still some hope or belief that the disingenuous behavior Mr. Arafat and the PLO's leadership is a result of pressure from the street resulting from lack of tangible gains to the average Palestinian rather than Mr. Arafat's intentions and a reflection of his bad faith in entering the Oslo process in 1993, that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. Arafat's past is a good indication that he will continue to use terror and corruption to stay in power. He does not want to give peace a chance because in peacetime the Palestinians working in Israel will earn many times over those working under Mr. Arafat's corrupt leadership in the West Bank, and especially in Gaza, where they will continue to earn a pittance. This will lead, as it already has, to demands to end corruption, thus, threatening Mr. Arafat's regime.

That, more than anything else, explains the failure of "the peace process" wherein the Barak government made unprecedented concessions that Mr. Arafat failed to accept as a compromise to end the conflict. And it is why any attempt by the Bush administration to pick up the pieces of the failed effort appear, at best, extremely difficult.

Palestinian Migrant workers

'The police informed me that I will be kept in custody until I agreed to sign the [confession] prepared by them. To escape from unbearable assault, I agreed... Now I have completed more than two years and three months in jail without knowing anything about the punishment or my fate...'
A letter from Amaladasan, an Indian national, who was detained in Safwa in the Eastern province in 1994 on charges of having sexual intercourse with a woman who was not his wife. His subsequent fate is not known.

A Filipino returned to his home in mid-1999. Shortly afterwards, a colleague entered the room accompanied by two mutawa'een and a policeman. His colleague, a Christian like himself, was in handcuffs and said, "Brother, I am sorry." Before he could say more, one of the mutawa'een hit him in the face and told him to be quiet. Without explanation the mutawa'een and the policeman searched the room and found a Bible and other Christian material.

The Filipino was then taken without explanation to the office of the mutawa'een, where he was accused of being a preacher. When he denied the allegation, one of the mutawa'een became angry, put one of his wrists in handcuffs and beat him in the ribs. "He shouted in Arabic, 'Refute your God', and spat in my face." The accusation that he was a preacher turned out to be the nearest he ever came to knowing the reason for his detention.

Such testimonies highlight the vulnerability of foreign nationals to arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as a range of other human rights violations. Many of the foreign nationals living in Saudi Arabia - who now make up 25 per cent of the population - enjoy good salaries and working conditions. However, those who come into contact with the criminal justice system can often find that the dream of a better life working in Saudi Arabia has turned sour. They are vulnerable to abuse by their employers and there are no trade unions to defend them. Their rights as detainees are also violated and there are few legal safeguards to protect them. If arrested they may be tricked into signing a confession in Arabic, a language they may not understand, and be unable to contact anyone to intervene on their behalf, including consular staff. This is particularly true if they are nationals of developing countries, who know few people in Saudi Arabia in a position of authority.

James Rebenito, a Filipino, was convicted of murder and executed in June 1996. He was held incommunicado for over two years and no information about his case was made available to his family or the Philippine embassy until January 1995, when the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry informed the Philippine embassy that he had "confessed" to murder. Requests by the embassy to visit him, have access to his file and attend any trial proceedings, were all turned down. His wife, who was allowed to see him once before his execution, told Amnesty International that he proclaimed his innocence and said he had witnesses to prove it. There were apparently two witnesses near the scene of the murder and another person was with James Rebenito throughout the day of the crime. All were questioned by the police, but none was called to testify at the trial.

Foreign workers who try to practice religions other than the officially sanctioned Sunni Islam face arrest, detention, ill-treatment and deportation. Christians, Sikhs and members of other religious minorities have suffered such fates for holding informal private worship groups in their homes or for possessing religious literature.

Many foreign workers have been detained for prolonged periods and ill-treated simply for visa irregularities. Those accused of serious criminal offences face torture, including amputations and flogging, and the death penalty, always without the right to defence and sometimes without access to their consulate. Detainees who do not understand Arabic are sometimes denied interpreters and translations of legal documents. As a result, migrant workers may spend years in prison not knowing what charges are laid against them, what sentence they are serving or even that they face execution.

BRIEFING:

Secrecy and Suffering

No Dissent Allowed

An Unjust Death

System of Injustice

Women

Migrant Workers

Culture of Brutality

Who Arms the Torturers

The Death Penalty

Campaigning for Justice : What you can do