January 13, 2004

Palestinian Authority Faces Money Woes

Hit by waning support from fatigued donor nations, the Palestinian Authority has been forced to borrow from banks to pay salaries to its 125,000 employees and may be unable to meet its February payroll, the economy minister said Tuesday.
[...]
With unemployment rampant outside the public payroll, Palestinians could be facing unprecedented economic collapse after three years of conflict with Israel.
[Nice to see the Intifada has cost the Paleos as much or more as it has the nation of Israel!--Jen]
[...]
Palestinians say Israeli travel restrictions and frequent military operations have ruined their economy. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to prevent terror attacks, pointing to frequent charges of corruption in the Palestinian leadership as a reason for the malaise.

World Bank figures show about 40 percent of the Palestinian work force is unemployed and 60 percent of the population live on less than $2 per person per day.

Masri said the Palestinian Authority has a monthly income of about $20 million and expenditures of at least $85 million.
[$85 mill on what, pray tell? Dynamite?--ed.]

The World Bank says donors have grown weary at the lack of progress toward peace, while the Palestinians are facing a $400 million shortfall.

"They are facing a crisis and it's getting worse," Norwegian Mideast envoy Jakken Biorn Lian said by phone from Oslo. "They need extra contributions."

Masri said that Arab declarations of support for the Palestinians were not being matched by remittances, with only Saudi Arabia and Libya agreeing to send money. "The Palestinian cause is not the world's highest priority these days," he said.

Dee-lighted to hear that news!
These Islamist killers have been blackmailing the planet for long enough!
I'd loved to see the US never give the PA another thin dime and I look, hope and pray for that to happen very, very soon.
We can hope that the EU and Japan will follow our lead.
Please recall that all of us have given the PA plenty, so if they're really wondering about that $400 million "shortfall," look no further than a short guy's personal bank accounts named Yasser Arafat, who also happens to be a billionaire, as documented by Fortune Magazine in their world's richest people lists.
Obviously, there also has to be a reckoning with the Sauds.
It wouldn't surprise me if we weren't talking with Quaddafi of Libya already on this subject.
But can you believe that the Arab world as a whole and entities like Arafat and the Sauds would let these poor ignorant Palestinians live like stray cats on $2 a day, with no sign of viable employment or industry in the "Palestinian" areas in sight?
And it's been that way for over a decade, but more likely since 1948.
They've long taken the attitude that they didn't have to *do* anything to make "Palestine" a viable state, because their plan was always (and stilll is!) to kill all the Israelis and just "take over" Israel, which has been toiling and thriving economically and culturally and making the desert bloom lo these 56 years.
If only the "Palestinian" people would hold Yasser and his pals accountable for the money and stop the whining to the world community that they need more, as they've traditionally done in the past with great success.
Cue the Cuba Gooding, Jr.: "Show me the money!"