Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
International spending plan aims to give quick boost to Gaza
The international community is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Gaza Strip in the coming months, including in roads and housing, to create large numbers of jobs and jump-start an economic recovery of the impoverished coastal area, a World Bank official said Tuesday.
Nigel Roberts, the World Bank's director for the West Bank and Gaza, said the $750 million (-625 million) in aid is "an expression of hope for the future," but that progress would require changes by Israel and the Palestinians.
The projects will not immediately transform Gaza, whose economy is in shambles after more than four years of fighting with Israel, said Roberts. "The idea is to put our efforts as quickly and visibly as possible so people get a chance to see that things are changing," he said.
International Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn raised the money from donor countries for job creation and infrastructure projects in the wake of Israel's pullout from Gaza. Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, is working closely with the development bank to implement the plan.
While some money will go to the West Bank, the vast majority is expected to be spent in Gaza by the end of the year on projects such as renovating a main north-south highway, improving water resources and new housing.
With the latest pledges, international aid to the Palestinians is expected to rise to about $1.2 billion (-1 billion) this year, roughly 25 percent higher than in recent years.
The Group of Eight industrialized nations last summer also has pledged up to $9 billion (-7.5 billion) in aid, much of it in the form of private investments, to the Palestinians over the next three years. Roberts said Israel and the Palestinians will need to take more steps for the global recovery effort to succeed.
The Palestinians, who have made great progress in cleaning up waste and corruption in their spending, must reform their legal system, he said. The Israelis, meanwhile, must ease travel restrictions in the Palestinian areas.
"Disengagement has rekindled donor enthusiasm because they see an opportunity here for real change," he said. "If these things don't happen in a fairly visible and appreciable way, then that donor enthusiasm is going to fade."
Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib said he is confident that the Palestinians can carry out the construction projects in a clean, efficient and corruption-free manner. But he said progress in Gaza will be limited until the border crossings are opened to allow the free movement of exports.
"When it comes to Gaza, it all depends on the crossings," he said. "They seem to be trying to suffocate us in Gaza by not allowing improvements in movement."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel wants Gaza's reconstruction effort to succeed and is eager to reopen the borders.
But he said any solution would have to take Israel's security needs into account as well. He said open borders without proper controls would enable weapons to enter Gaza from Egypt, and allow suicide bombers to enter Israel.
Regev reiterated the long-standing Israeli call for the Palestinians to crack down on militant groups.
"We're willing to make calculated security risks. They can help us by doing what they have to do on the security side," he said. "If they're more effective in dealing with terror and the terror infrastructure, that gives us more flexibility."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/634166.html
The projects will not immediately transform Gaza, whose economy is in shambles after more than four years of fighting with Israel, said Roberts. "The idea is to put our efforts as quickly and visibly as possible so people get a chance to see that things are changing," he said.
International Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn raised the money from donor countries for job creation and infrastructure projects in the wake of Israel's pullout from Gaza. Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, is working closely with the development bank to implement the plan.
While some money will go to the West Bank, the vast majority is expected to be spent in Gaza by the end of the year on projects such as renovating a main north-south highway, improving water resources and new housing.
With the latest pledges, international aid to the Palestinians is expected to rise to about $1.2 billion (-1 billion) this year, roughly 25 percent higher than in recent years.
The Group of Eight industrialized nations last summer also has pledged up to $9 billion (-7.5 billion) in aid, much of it in the form of private investments, to the Palestinians over the next three years. Roberts said Israel and the Palestinians will need to take more steps for the global recovery effort to succeed.
The Palestinians, who have made great progress in cleaning up waste and corruption in their spending, must reform their legal system, he said. The Israelis, meanwhile, must ease travel restrictions in the Palestinian areas.
"Disengagement has rekindled donor enthusiasm because they see an opportunity here for real change," he said. "If these things don't happen in a fairly visible and appreciable way, then that donor enthusiasm is going to fade."
Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib said he is confident that the Palestinians can carry out the construction projects in a clean, efficient and corruption-free manner. But he said progress in Gaza will be limited until the border crossings are opened to allow the free movement of exports.
"When it comes to Gaza, it all depends on the crossings," he said. "They seem to be trying to suffocate us in Gaza by not allowing improvements in movement."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel wants Gaza's reconstruction effort to succeed and is eager to reopen the borders.
But he said any solution would have to take Israel's security needs into account as well. He said open borders without proper controls would enable weapons to enter Gaza from Egypt, and allow suicide bombers to enter Israel.
Regev reiterated the long-standing Israeli call for the Palestinians to crack down on militant groups.
"We're willing to make calculated security risks. They can help us by doing what they have to do on the security side," he said. "If they're more effective in dealing with terror and the terror infrastructure, that gives us more flexibility."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/634166.html
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$50.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
Erekat told Army Radio today that the PA also demands the release of Hizbullah murderer Samir Kuntar. Kuntar and three other terrorists infiltrated into northern Israel by sea in 1979, abducted and murdered Danny Haran and his young daughter Einat, and killed policeman Eliyahu Shachar. Danny's 2-year-old daughter Yael was also killed in the attack.
Erekat's demand is not likely to be fulfilled - at least not in the coming weeks. A meeting scheduled for today between PA leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was canceled precisely because Abbas knew that Sharon would not respond positively to demands of this nature.
On the other hand, it is not unlikely that Barghouti will be released in the future. In June of this year, Israel daily Yediot Acharonot reported that top Israeli officials have recommended that the government consider releasing Barghouti. The recommendation reportedly appeared in a secret document given to senior security cabinet ministers.
Last November, then-interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the Shinui Party said it would be possible, "under certain circumstances," to consider releasing Barghouti from prison. The ultra-left Gush Shalom organization has also called for Barghouti's release. The Justice for Jonathan Pollard organization has also reported in the name of Acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel is grooming Barghouti and preparing him to be the next Palestinian Authority leader.
Barghouti and other Al-Aksa Brigades terrorists are pressuring the PLO's Fatah, its mother organization, to be included on its list of candidates for the upcoming PA parliamentary election. The election is scheduled for late January 2006.
Fatah has not yet agreed to incorporate Al-Aksa on its list, however, and the disagreement has already led to violence. Al-Aksa terrorists fired at a car of a senior PA parliament leader last week - in protest of Fatah's refusal to include them in a Bethlehem gathering convened to formulate an election list.
Topping the list of aspiring Al-Aksa candidates is Barghouti, who has been in Israeli prison for three and a half years and is serving several life terms. The arch-terrorist is considered the founder of the Al-Aksa Brigades. Others on the list of potential PA lawmakers are Nasser Awis, a subordinate of Barghouti who dispatched suicide terrorists; Yasser Abu Baher, currently serving three life terms plus 40 years for various murders; and Jamal Hawil, responsible for many attacks against Israelis in the Jenin area.
An Al-Aksa leader known as Abu Udai demands that the Fatah leadership include what he calls Fatah's "military arm" in the list of candidates. He says that the Al-Aksa Brigades are a "fundamental part of Fatah."
This attempt by Al-Aksa, writes analyst and former IDF Intelligence officer Yonatan D. HaLevy, is an _expression of its desire to effect a "white revolution" within Fatah against the old leadership. Al-Aksa's influence within the organization has grown over the past five years of warfare, and it is now ready to translate this to political power.
Weeks ago, terrorists fired at the home of Hani Al-Hasan, a veteran Fatah leader who has fallen out of favor with the more militant and younger Fatah members.
The calls against Hamas' participation in the elections, because of its declared intentions to destroy Israel, apply just as well to Fatah. The latter's official website presents its charter just as it was written in 1989, in which it declares its ambition to bring about the "total liberation of Palestine and the liquidation of the Zionist entity economically, politically, militarily and culturally." This will be done, the charter states, via armed popular revolution - and Al-Aksa and other groups have taken it upon themselves to carry this out.