Recent demonstrations in protest of the
rising cost of living have swept across the West
Bank. While they are not indicative of a
Palestinian version of the "Arab Spring", they are
still an important first step.
A
reasonable demand, however, cannot possibly be for
Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas to sack the government of Salam
Fayyad. Neither has much sway over Palestinian
economy, let alone political will.
Abbas
enjoys Israeli and Western backing because of his
ability to manage - if not sustain - a factional
split between his party, Fatah, and Hamas, which
controls Gaza. He remains faithful to security
coordination between his authority and Israel, and
continues to crack down on
his opponents with an iron fist.
He is
also desperately clinging to a loyalty to
Washington policy - despite the fact that the
latter's prestige and influence is quickly
diminishing in the region. In an era of numerous
political possibilities, Abbas, 76, is fervently
traditional, lacking in nerve and by no means
capable of revolutionary change.
While
Abbas is perceived as America's man in
Palestinian, Fayyad is an economic equivalent. His
years at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
his Western-driven branding as pragmatic,
non-factional and incorruptible made him most
suited to lead the post Hamas-Fatah split period.
Since 2007, Fayyad has reigned supreme. His
conduct, language and demeanor have signaled a
departure from the Palestinian politics of old -
when revolutionaries with military fatigues seemed
to be driven, at least rhetorically, by
nationalistic slogans concerning liberation,
freedom and the right of return.
Abbas and
Fayyad helped to redefine the old Palestinian
discourse, a process that started following the
Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization signing
of the Oslo Accords in September 1993. The accords
were touted as signaling a new age of mutual
respect, peace and security.
In reality,
they only cemented the status quo, allowing Israel
to continue expanding its illegal settlements and
determining every political outcome based on a
protracted colonial vision. While no Israeli
leader - left, right or center - has since
deviated from this vision, Palestinians have grown
in number within an ever-shrinking space.
"Palestine" has been sliced off into numerous
cantons, with an isolated population center
dependent on precarious international handouts.
For years, Abbas and Fayyad oversaw the
financial transaction, which was more of a pyramid
scheme than a state-building measure. Funds
arrived from multiple sources, including tax
revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the PA.
In addition to controlling the Palestinian
borders, 62% of the West Bank (Area C) and even
the exit and entry of Palestinian leaders, Israel
controlled every aspect of the Palestinian
economy.
The Paris Protocol, signed in
1994, was meant to regulate the transition in the
Palestinian economy. Nearly two decades later, the
protocol has become the very rope by which Israel
continues to strangle Palestinians. When the
latter fails to play by the (Israeli) rules,
Israel adds more military checkpoints, refuses to
transfer Palestinian tax revenues, and so on.
Within days, the "Palestinian economy" begins to
grind.
In the West Bank, the Keynes vs
Hayek economic debate matters little. Even
"dependency theory" in its standard application is
of no use. The West Bank has subsisted on a
charity-model, with many middlemen who have
accumulated unimaginable wealth from money that
was meant to trickle down. Not only did Oslo turn
a struggle for liberation into a massive charity
network riddled with corruption and nepotism, it
also managed to turn the process - as in the
"peace process" - into an end in itself.
Few Palestinians benefited, and the vast
majority had to fight for their survival. As for
Israel, the bulldozers never slowed down and
settlements continued to expand at the expense of
Palestinian land, leaving no room for any kind of
"state". Over time, the "two-state solution"
became a mere brand which helped separate
Palestine's "extremists" from its "moderates".
Now, the Palestinian Authority is not only
politically bankrupt, it is financially broke as
well. Future prospects look even grimmer than the
current reality. A recent report by the UN
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
downplayed the hype over the supposed economic
prosperity in the West Bank.
"Economic
expansion last year was accompanied by a decline
in real wages and labor productivity and did not
succeed in reducing high unemployment, which
persisted at 26 per cent," said the report.
The growth in Gaza's economy also proved
to be a ruse, since the "growth" was mere
mathematical guesswork based on Palestinians'
ability to rebuild what Israel destroyed in its
December 2008-January 2009 war on Gaza. "Food
insecurity affects two of every three Palestinians
in the occupied Palestinian territory, but is most
severe in Gaza. Also alarming is the poverty rate
in East Jerusalem, estimated at 78 per cent,"
reported UNCTAD.
While the political
aspect of Oslo has been dead and buried for years,
it continues to exist as a financial matter. The
Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu looks on
as the house of sand they built with their
Palestinian "peace partners" crumbles. Israeli
journalist Amira Hass reminds Palestinians that
their real fight is with the occupation, not price
increases enacted by a largely helpless authority.
While it is true that the enemy remains the
solider and the settler, much enmity towards the
PA is also likely to play out in the future.
While Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman continues his outbursts targeting Abbas
and Oslo, Netanyahu has ordered the transfer of
250 million shekels (US$64 million) of tax
revenues to the PA in order to delay its potential
collapse. Still, Israel has no intention of
abandoning its carrot and stick approach to
dealing with Palestinians. Deputy Foreign Minister
Danny Ayalon was crystal clear when he said that
Israel would not renegotiate the Paris Protocol
(UPI, September 10).
How long the PA can
continue to operate as a functionary of Israel and
Western interests will now largely depend on
Palestinians. Even if more money is pumped into PA
coffers, the fundamental problem will not go away.
Bribing a nation with meager handouts to deny them
political rights is superfluous at best, and it
will most certainly not last.
There are
new calls for the dismantling of the Palestinian
Authority. For these calls to be meaningful, they
need to be accompanied by a unifying transitional
political program that will guide Palestinians out
of the temporary chaos that is likely to follow.
The program must be a part of a larger vision, one
that looks past charity-economics and frivolous
talks of two-state solutions, and actually bridges
the gap between divided Palestinian communities.
Ramzy Baroud
(www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally
syndicated columnist and the editor of
PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story
(Pluto Press, London.)
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2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
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