OccupationalHazard.org 07.19.04

The Occupation - 07/19/04

Utter chaos and its aftermath

Danny Rubinstein - Ha'aretz

Yasser Arafat and his fellow leaders in the Palestinian Authority are now paying the price of the wanton rule they imposed on the West Bank and Gaza. The events in Gaza attest to the crumbling of their regime, and not solely because of the Israeli policy that obliterated the Palestinian security system and administration. The Palestinian leadership is also at fault for having instituted reprehensible governing methods in the territories. The years in question are 1994-2000, during which the peace process was ongoing, though cumbersomely, and the Palestinian leadership had sufficient means to build apparatuses for the state in the making. Whoever glances through writings during those six years about the manner in which the Palestinian government apparatuses were established will find plenty of criticism, by Palestinians, as well. In 1995, for example, the Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said wrote: "Arafat is building in the territories a government that is a combination of Lebanon's chaos and Saddam Hussein's tyranny in Iraq." Said was opposed to the Oslo Accords, so perhaps his words are particularly harsh, but there is no shortage of criticism by others who saw what was happening in the territories.
Almost from the day the Palestinian government institutions were established, there was talk of corruption. We're familiar with the shoddy method of PA economic monopolies (on fuel, cement and more), which became a regular money machine for squeezing the population dry. The distribution of franchises and assets to cronies was also common. Arafat and his cohorts managed bank accounts without any oversight. Salaries were transferred en masse to the heads of security services, instead of into the employees' personal bank accounts.
Whoever walked into a Palestinian government or public office always encountered relatives of the person in charge. They received the jobs and accompanying perks (car and phones). A lot of money flowed into the PA from the donor countries (by a per capita calculation, no people in the world received such sums at that time), and despite the stringent monitoring by donor countries, quite a few became rich in the process.
Much was also said about the failed Palestinian judicial system. It would not be much of an exaggeration to state that the PA failed to establish a judicial system. Most conflicts and disputes did not reach court because the rival sides settled on their own, through power brokers, like arbitrations among mobsters. Occasionally, even when a verdict was issued, it wasn't enforced. We know of the case of Tawfik Abu Rahma, briefly Gaza's attorney general, who went to the prison and personally saw to the release of 10 prisoners, following a court order. A few hours later, police rearrested them. Abu Rahma was summoned before a Palestinian parliamentary committee and questioned as to why he did nothing when the 10 were rearrested. He burst out laughing. When asked what was so funny, he replied: Be grateful that 11 weren't arrested, in other words that I wasn't arrested, too.
The ineptitude of the Palestinian leadership ought not to absolve Israel's governments from responsibility for the deterioration of Palestinian rule. Since the outbreak of the intifada's bloody clashes, Israel has done everything to bring about the collapse of the PA. But even beforehand, it cultivated Palestinian corruption. The Israeli policy benefited Palestinian cronies and senior officials, imposed economic limitations and mobility limitations on the general public, which created hardship, and doubled the number of settlers, who are perceived by Palestinians as having come to plunder them.
Thus arose in the West Bank and Gaza a questionable Palestinian rule, hated and alienated, which the State of Israel has in recent years helped to undermine without knowing what the chaos that replaces it will lead to in the near future.

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Utter chaos and its aftermath
Danny Rubinstein - Ha'aretz





Yasser Arafat and his fellow leaders in the Palestinian Authority are now paying the price of the wanton rule they imposed on the West Bank and Gaza. The events in Gaza attest to the crumbling of their regime, and not solely because of the Israeli policy that obliterated the Palestinian security system and administration. The Palestinian leadership is also at fault for having instituted reprehensible governing methods in the territories. The years in question are 1994-2000, during which the peace process was ongoing, though cumbersomely, and the Palestinian leadership had sufficient means to build apparatuses for the state in the making. Whoever glances through writings during those six years about the manner in which the Palestinian government apparatuses were established will find plenty of criticism, by Palestinians, as well. In 1995, for example, the Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said wrote: "Arafat is building in the territories a government that is a combination of Lebanon's chaos and Saddam Hussein's tyranny in Iraq." Said was opposed to the Oslo Accords, so perhaps his words are particularly harsh, but there is no shortage of criticism by others who saw what was happening in the territories. Almost from the day the Palestinian government institutions were established, there was talk of corruption. We're familiar with the shoddy method of PA economic monopolies (on fuel, cement and more), which became a regular money machine for squeezing the population dry. The distribution of franchises and assets to cronies was also common. Arafat and his cohorts managed bank accounts without any oversight. Salaries were transferred en masse to the heads of security services, instead of into the employees' personal bank accounts. Whoever walked into a Palestinian government or public office always encountered relatives of the person in charge. They received the jobs and accompanying perks (car and phones). A lot of money flowed into the PA from the donor countries (by a per capita calculation, no people in the world received such sums at that time), and despite the stringent monitoring by donor countries, quite a few became rich in the process. Much was also said about the failed Palestinian judicial system. It would not be much of an exaggeration to state that the PA failed to establish a judicial system. Most conflicts and disputes did not reach court because the rival sides settled on their own, through power brokers, like arbitrations among mobsters. Occasionally, even when a verdict was issued, it wasn't enforced. We know of the case of Tawfik Abu Rahma, briefly Gaza's attorney general, who went to the prison and personally saw to the release of 10 prisoners, following a court order. A few hours later, police rearrested them. Abu Rahma was summoned before a Palestinian parliamentary committee and questioned as to why he did nothing when the 10 were rearrested. He burst out laughing. When asked what was so funny, he replied: Be grateful that 11 weren't arrested, in other words that I wasn't arrested, too. The ineptitude of the Palestinian leadership ought not to absolve Israel's governments from responsibility for the deterioration of Palestinian rule. Since the outbreak of the intifada's bloody clashes, Israel has done everything to bring about the collapse of the PA. But even beforehand, it cultivated Palestinian corruption. The Israeli policy benefited Palestinian cronies and senior officials, imposed economic limitations and mobility limitations on the general public, which created hardship, and doubled the number of settlers, who are perceived by Palestinians as having come to plunder them. Thus arose in the West Bank and Gaza a questionable Palestinian rule, hated and alienated, which the State of Israel has in recent years helped to undermine without knowing what the chaos that replaces it will lead to in the near future.
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