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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| The Palestinian Authority, by the numbers |
| 2006-02-28 |
| Opinion parading as fact edited out. Questions had been asked at Rantburg about PA funding. Here are some answers. The Palestinians are the most foreign-aid dependent society on earth. So the threat by the United States to cut off most aid to Palestine after its 3.6 million people last month elected the militant group Hamas into government, is foreboding. Foreboding is not actually the word the writer wants, but who are we to expect proper language use from a journalist? The European Union is weighing similar action. but then decided to go ahead and throw their money to the murderers anyway. And Israel says it will withhold $55 million a month in taxes and other fees collected by Israel, but owed to Palestinians. There's no dispute that slashing US aid will lead to greater deprivation in the West Bank and Gaza. The US provided about one-third of the nearly $1.1 billion in aid disbursed to the Palestine Authority (PA) and for Palestinian projects last year. That amounts to about $300 per man, woman, and child. In relation to a gross national income for the average Palestinian of $1,327 last year, any cut in foreign aid and tax revenue is serious. Of course, the writer neglects to mention what percent of the donated monies stuck to the fingers of those Palestinians through whose hands it flowed. In effect, Palestinians have a third-world income - a few dollars a day. And they live next door to first-world Israel, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of about $22,200 last year. Israel gets about $420 per capita each year in aid from the US, partly as a result of the 1979 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt. Though that's more aid per capita than Palestinians get, Israel is less dependent on it. But don't let's notice that Israel uses those funds to pay part of the cost of protecting itself against those self-same Palestinians, which she wouldn't need to do if the Palestinians would just stop trying to kill everybody. Aid to Palestine comes from multiple sources. A World Bank trust fund gave $125 million to the PA in 2004. A new Congressional Research Service report lists nine other aid sources for the PA. At the top was the European Union with $105 million. Saudi Arabia gave $76 million, the US $20 million, and so on down through Libya, Britain, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Egypt. Even more aid comes from the EU, the US, and Persian Gulf nations for specific development projects ($300 million, $345 million, and about $200 million respectively in 2005). A World Bank report this month reckons real GDP in the West Bank and Gaza grew 8 to 9 percent last year, continuing a modest recovery that began two years ago. Extra foreign aid helped. Yet the economy is still 29 percent below where it was in 2003. Unemployment is at 23 percent. Another issue is that the Palestinian population grows more than 3 percent a year. Each Palestinian woman in Gaza has close to six children on average; in the West Bank, 4.4 children is the average. These numbers match the CIA FActbook, but we know that the reported numbers are in dispute (remember that missing million of Palestinian population due to double counting, using projections as absolute, and ignoring emigration?). |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #13 phil_b, sorry. Paying our own executioners. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-28 15:48 |
| #12 Good point, James. I wondered that myself. And, color me pink, but to learn that SA donated $76 million for their "brothers?" I was shocked it was even that much, lol. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-02-28 15:11 |
| #11 I wonder how much these cuts are really going to hurt. As tw noted, quite a bit of the money never circulated in the country. I understand Hamas won partly on the sense that they weren't crooks like Fatah: they actually provided services, etc. So if they turn out to be relatively uncorrupt it might offset the losses; maybe even completely offset them. Which would, unfortunately, boost their prestige and strengthen their mandate to govern/kill neighbors. |
| Posted by: James 2006-02-28 15:01 |
| #10 Giving money to the Palestinians is utterly immoral and disgusting, when tehre are people far more in need (eg Black soudanese) who get far less. In fact gicven that after fify eight years they are still scratching their balls in refugee camps when every other people from Cypriot Greeks to Oriental Jews expelled in 1948 are living from their work. Given the massive corruption Given thir support to genocidiacl movements. Given the repellant acts they have perpetrated not only againt Israelis but also against Lebanese and Iraquis. Given that during the cartoon riots they threatened the very countries who have ben feding them for decades. I propose that not only all funding from US or Europe being cut but that they are forced to give back every penny of western aid they ever received Let give that money to people who really need, who are not terrorists and failed genociders. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-02-28 10:53 |
| #9 The thing to notice is how little is given by other Arabs and mooselimbs. |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-02-28 10:37 |
| #8 DBlondie I doubt very much of the funds that the US provides to Egypt go to the PA. Egypt has been decreasing their aid to the PA over the past decade. There is a lot of anti Palestinian feeling in the Egyptian population because of kidnappings, assaults and anti Egypt remarks by Paleos. But I agree that Egypt gets way too much in the way of American aid. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-02-28 08:20 |
| #7 Shouldn't we be looking at cutting that, too? IMHO, all jizya should be ended. "Unless you're selling something we want, no more cash will flow into Islamic lands." |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-02-28 07:55 |
| #6 Since they are getting aid from Egypt, and we are giving foreign aid to Egypt....what percentage of what we are sending to Cairo actually ends up with these mopes? Shouldn't we be looking at cutting that, too? |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-02-28 07:04 |
| #5 gromguru, I think you'll find its $50M per month, regards. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-28 06:58 |
| #4 phil_b It's approx 50 million. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-28 06:49 |
| #3 The Paleos single largest sources of funds - $500M - is tax revenues collected by the Israelis. There is talk Israel will stop doing this, since the 'single economic entity' envisaged under Camp David no longer makes sense (if it ever did). |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-28 00:26 |
| #2 The US provided about one-third of the nearly $1.1 billion in aid disbursed to the Palestine Authority (PA) and for Palestinian projects last year. And some people are intent on bashing the Euros. I'll change my opinion if the US actually pulls this funding. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2006-02-28 00:25 |
| #1 no-skills, no industry, hate-feeding, breeders.... ooh! Look on the bright side! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-28 00:09 |