Shortly before Mr. Clinton's parade through Gaza last December, the State Department hosted a Conference of International Donors to the Palestinian Authority. The global leaders helping Mr. Clinton boost an Arab State in Israel's heartland claim that hefty financial emoluments will produce civil liberties, a free market, and prosperity. A very different picture emerges in an economic report by the Middle East Media and Research Institute, and in recent polls conducted by the Palestinians themselves.
Billions of American and European dollars have been poured into Gaza since the Palestinian Authority was set up in 1994. These funds have displaced the previous de-centralized economy with a monolith "dominated by scores of monopolies created by Arafat and operated by individuals close to him," writes MEMRI. Private enterprise and ownership has been banned in most sectors of Palestinian commerce. The main player in this centralization is PADICO, the Palestine Development and Investment Company run by Arafat's "economic advisor," Mohammed Rashid.
Registered in Liberia, PADICO violates its own bylaws by dominating ownership of its major subsidiaries and running them through interlocking directorates. It owns 93% of all industrial investment in the PA, 85% of Tourism, 80% of economic development (which in practice means distribution of political favors) and 70% of the Palestine Security Exchange. PADICO also owns major portions of all real estate and telecommunications business in the area and Arafat uses his power to void contracts and suppress competition. An international telecommunications firm currently suing the PA for breach of contract has been stymied in court by Rashid's argument that Arafat is not responsible for any documents he signs "because his command of English is poor." The Palestinians gave this same excuse when they left Wye River as a pre-emptive excuse for non-compliance that has followed in due course.
Rashid himself directs another corporation, if one can dignify it with the term, that operates without a board of directors and without ever having been registered. Through this vaguely named Palestine Commercial Services Company (PCSC), Rashid controls all import and sales of cement, cigarettes, flour and oil, the primary materials of construction, cooking and consumption. He also owns the new casino the PA has built and operates in Jericho, kicking back 30% of the profits to Arafat. The retailers of trade in gasoline are Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, heads of the "Preventive Security Force" in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria respectively who are notorious for threatening Jewish civilians. The al-Masri family, extensively involved in this graft, is believed to have kicked back about $5 million of a recent $60 million "loan" to one of Clinton's campaign funds.
Thus the PA gouges the people on whose behalf they claim to rule. It melds military forces with economic monopolies, as does China, which, like the PA, is engaged in rapidly-expanding security and military deals ("functional exchanges" in Pentagon-speak) with America's armed forces. Why does the Administration promote this kind of pauperizing despotism?
The Palestinian casino that opened last fall in Jericho exemplifies the fraud both of the Palestinian economy and its security forces and "peace" agreements. The casino refuses entry to Palestinians (what if Israel did this, even within the "green line"?), but fulsomely welcomes and fiercely protects its Israeli and foreign clientele. Its gambling and appeal to appetites provoked the ire of Hamas and Sheikh Yassin who termed it "a Satan." Attacks were threatened, but Jibril Rajoub "flexed his muscles" as one MK put it, and there hasn't been any unpleasantness. This is the same Rajoub who last year asserted that his "security forces" would not protect any Israelis who visit or drive into PA territory. Many Jews seem to love losing their money and giving the Land of Isrel to their inveterate enemies. The Austrians happily fund the casino, the latest variation to solving the Jewish problem, this time to the tune of roulette wheels and one-armed bandits.
The Arab "view from the street" of the PA's large-scale thievery belies Administration claims that Mr. Clinton's pro-Arafat policy plays well in Gaza. On January 15, the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion released a poll showing that only 38% of the Arabs think it would "be positive" to declare a state this year. Less than a third said they believe the PA is capable of running a state. A poll by the Center for Palestine Research & Studies showed that nearly 70% of Palestinians believe "PA institutions are corrupt" and "nearly 60% believe it will get worse." And despite the relentless push by PA schools, media and "religious
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Outpost - 4 - March 1999