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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Area C will never be part of Israel
2024-05-18
Long. A taste:
[Jpost] The year 2023 will be remembered as the year that witnessed the collapse of two closely related pillars of Israel’s West Bank policy. Together, these policies constitute grave misconceptions that nevertheless have been proudly championed by Israel's ultra-nationalist right-wing government. The first policy pillar is the “divide and rule” strategy, whereby the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were intentionally separated to prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state and to facilitate the sequestering of the West Bank and its ultimate annexation to Israel. This pillar crumbled to wrack and ruin on October 7th when it became abundantly clear that allowing Hamas to grow at the expense of the Palestinian Authority has grave consequences. The second pillar, the “battle over Area C,” sought to create spatial and demographic conditions permitting the annexation of an area that accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank. This pillar has been disintegrating gradually over several years.

The roots of these failed policies can be found in Israel's abdication of its legal commitments that were ratified in the Oslo Accords.
Given that both the Palestinian Authority/PLO/Fatah and Hamas abdicated their legal commitments from the beginning, it seems unfair and unrealistic to demand Israel stick to them.
In the declaration of principles, the State of Israel accepted the notion of unity of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: “The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period.” With regard to Area C, the agreement stated: “The Parties agree that the area of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations [Jerusalem, settlements, and military sites] will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction, to be completed within 18 months from the inauguration of the Council.” It also stated that: “‘Area C’ means areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B, which, except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations, will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction in accordance with this Agreement.” In simple terms – all the agreements signed by the State of Israel define the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as a single territorial unit. This principle has guided all negotiations conducted by the two sides. Area C, therefore, has been under an extremely extended temporary status pending its eventual transfer to Palestinian jurisdiction.

Regarding the first failure – the collapse of the “divide and rule” policy – the Palestinians are united in their insistence on a joint future for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Yes, yes. But does that mean Hamas will rule or Fatah/PLO/Palestinian authority? I admit it’s a silly question, as it looks like Hamas is the more popular option in both territories, and the PA demonstrated their inability to hold Gaza in the teeth of Hamas armaments back in 2007.
Similarly, there is overwhelming consensus in the international community on the two-state solution as the only viable solution to the conflict.
So? The international community doesn’t have to worry about Palestinians rampaging over the border with pillage, plunder, rape, torture, and murder in their minds. So it is none of the international community’s business.
Israel has also accepted this principle in all negotiations with the Palestinians, and it is only the stalemate in diplomacy during the Netanyahu years that gave rise to the catastrophic divide and rule strategy. Because the territorial integrity issue is clear and undisputed, we focus on the second failure – the battle over Area C. Our research, conducted as part of the T-Politography project, a project dedicated to empirically monitoring changing levels of Israeli and Palestinian control in the territories in several different domains, examined the period from 2010 through the end of 2023. During these Netanyahu years (with a one-year Bennett-Lapid government), we found clear evidence that Israel is squandering its resources on a lost cause.

Motivated by the idea that it is possible to annex most of the West Bank without its Palestinian population, Israel devoted its full force and all the means at its disposal to shape the political future of Area C. This process included unprecedented budgetary allocations for the expansion of settlements; the establishment of additional government ministries as channels for the indirect transfer of funds; the encouragement and retroactive whitewashing of illegal outposts by the government; the construction of roads such as the Hawara and El-Arub bypasses, each of which cost over 200 million US Dollars; attempting to legislate the Regularization Bill – a bill that would allow the seizure of private Palestinian land; attempting to abolish the grounds of reasonableness clause (both legislation initiatives were canceled by the Israeli Supreme Court); and the absence of an immediate and forceful response to settler violence against the Palestinians. The process reached its peak in 2023 with the transfer of responsibility for the Civil Administration of the West Bank to ultra-nationalist Betzalel Smotrich as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry, which effectively turned him into the de-facto governor of the West Bank.

The Palestinian side did not remain impassive in the face of this Israeli campaign. The Palestinian struggle for Area C was implemented through the Fayyad Plan, a two-year plan formulated by former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in 2009. The plan offered a roadmap for building Palestinian infrastructure and institutions to establish a de facto Palestinian state throughout the West Bank. The plan enjoyed international support and a budget of over half a billion euros from the EU.
Related:
Area C: 2024-03-04 Vietnam-bound Businessman Arrested With Cocaine In Factory-fitted Hidden Part At Abuja Airport
Area C: 2024-01-22 Sad News: Missing Navy SEALS now considered dead after being lost in raid of ship with Iranian weapons
Area C: 2024-01-13 Terrorists Kidnap Several Residents During Attack On Abuja Community
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Furious Palestinians turn against their own
2012-09-09
THE Arab Spring appears to have reached the Palestinian territories, with growing protests directed at the high cost of living.

But, as with other protests in the Arab world over the past two years, the protests are broadening.

Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the performance of the Palestinian Authority are also being targeted.

While most demonstrations in recent weeks have been peaceful, on Saturday night one took on a more destructive tone.

At a major intersection in Ramallah, near Jerusalem, youths blocked roads with rocks and set fire to overturned garbage bins, mattresses and piles of wood.

The demonstration was outside the al-Amari refugee camp. Protests were also held over the weekend in Hebron and Nablus.

The trigger for the demonstrations has been the inability of the PA to pay full salaries to its 150,000 employees this month.

A major target of the protests is PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is more popular among Western leaders than among many of his people. Mr Fayyad, a trusted point of contact for leaders such as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is blamed for cutbacks to entitlements and rising prices.

The former economist with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has overseen a crackdown on inefficiencies and corruption in the PA. He has been praised by the IMF for making changes to the Palestinian economy, just as criticism of him has grown among Palestinians.

Yesterday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas held a press conference to try to quell the growing unrest by blaming a range of other entities. He panned Israel for its occupation of the West Ban
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Authority budget deficit hits $1b. mark
2012-08-01
The deficit in the Palestinian Authority's budget for 2012 has reached more than $1b., PA Finance Minister Nabil Qassis revealed Wednesday.

He said that a decrease in foreign aid and failure of donor countries to fulfill their financial pledges to the PA were behind the severe crisis hitting the government in Ramallah.

Qassis told Palestinian legislators in Ramallah that the PA has reached understandings with Israel on ways of combating tax evasion. He was referring to an agreement that was signed Tuesday between PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz about broadening economic cooperation and improving tax collection on goods which the PA imports through Israeli ports.

The agreement also calls for setting up a pipeline to transport fuels directly from Israeli ports to the PA. Until now, fuels had been transferred to the PA territories by trucks.
I hope Israel gets a generous cut...
Qassis said that tax collection in the PA territories has been below expectations. He said that the main reason for the financial crisis was the state of uncertainty regarding foreign aid to the PA. "Without foreign aid, the Palestinian Authority can't cover its expenses," he added.
And much like any other blue state, they couldn't possibly cut expenses...
Which is why they've simply not been paying anyone. It's simpler, and only annoys the payees...and those to whom they owe money.
Referring to last week's report by the World Bank, which said that the Palestinian economy was still unsustainable, Qassis blamed Israel, saying: "If anyone thinks that our economy would be able to sustain itself under occupation, they are deluding themselves. We don't even control our national resources."
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Clinton Pushes Netanyahu To Apologize To Turkey, Take Steps To Bring PA Back To Talks
2012-07-17
US secretary of state reportedly urges prime minister to transfer small arms and release prisoners in bid to restart peace talks
Nothing apparently asked of PA, nobody bothers with Hamas, which is hopeless.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ...
 held talks Monday evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the end of a day of meetings with Israel's leaders on Iran, Paleostinian peacemaking and America's desire to see Israel heal its ties with Turkey.

Clinton reportedly urged Netanyahu to mend ties with Turkey and make moves to jump start peace talks with the Paleostinian Authority.

The US secretary of state, in Israel as the last leg of a tour through Asia, also told Netanyahu that Jerusalem should transfer small arms to the PA in order to help get the Paleostinians back to the negotiating table, according to Ynet news. She also called on Netanyahu to release Paleostinian prisoners. Both moves have been mentioned as Paleostinian prerequisites for coming back to talks.

Negotiations with the PA have been frozen since 2010 as Ramallah has also demanded a freeze on settlement construction before returning to the table.

Clinton reportedly told Netanyahu he should hurry to achieve peace with Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
 and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either...
, since it was not clear who would replace them.

Clinton held a joint presser with Netanyahu at the end of their session.

The stateswoman has been urging Israel at her meetings to work to improve relations with Ankara -- which have been dire since Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals who attacked them as they commandeered a Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, that was en route to break the sea blockade of Gazoo in May 2010. Clinton, Israeli sources said Monday night, has been telling the Israelis that terrorist groups are exploiting the hostility between the two countries, and that the collapsed relationship damages Israeli and American strategic interests.

She reportedly encouraged Israel to apologize over the Mavi Marmara fatalities, noting that Turkey was a regional asset and that the ongoing dispute with Israel was undermining international unity in the effort to thwart Iran's nuclear drive.

Before the meeting Netanyahu told Clinton he looked forward to hearing her impressions on Egypt. "That has been an anchor of peace and maintaining the peace treaty between us, I think, is something that is uppermost in both our minds, and I appreciate the efforts that you're investing to this end."

Netanyahu said Paleostinian peacemaking efforts and stopping Iran's nuclear program would also be discussed.

Clinton said Washington would remain close with Jerusalem on the rapidly evolving issues.

"We're living in a time of unprecedented change with a lot of challenges for us both and we will continue to consult closely as we have on an almost daily basis between our two governments to chart the best way forward for peace and stability, for Israel, the United States, the region and the world, and we're all delighted to be here with you," she said.

Earlier, Clinton met at her Jerusalem hotel with Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The PA has been talking about again seeking UN recognition of a unilaterally declared Paleostinian state; the US has been urging the PA not to do so. The PA is also seeking assistance to meet its financial difficulties. Here, it is understood, the US is looking for ways to help.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinians isolated and short of funds
2012-05-10
Another heart-warming story from Arab News...
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have “lost the argument” on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable.

In an interview with Reuters, Fayyad struck a note of discord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by calling for elections that have long been delayed because of deep political divisions between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. He also warned his administration’s future was clouded by severe financial strains and said the Palestinians had failed to galvanize a distracted world behind their cause.
Fayyad is the technocrat who is supposed to 'run' the PA government, and it's taken him until now to realize that it can't be done...
“I think we are losing the argument, if we have not already lost the argument. But that doesn’t make our position wrong,” said the former World Bank economist, a political independent who has had strong support amongst Western powers.

Arab unrest, the US presidential elections and financial crises in Europe had combined to knock the Palestinian issue off the global agenda more than 18 months after peace talks with Israel broke down in a dispute over Jewish settlement building.

“What is the biggest obstacle we face? The state of marginalization. It is unprecedented,” he said. “The Israelis have managed to successfully trivialize our side of the argument,” he added, alluding to the Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement building before negotiations can resume.
Perhaps because your side was trivial to start...
Israel says talks should continue without preconditions and has continued to build housing in blocs that dot the West Bank on land the United Nations deems illegally occupied.

Speaking from his offices in Ramallah with the red, black, green and white national flag behind him, Fayyad said Palestinians must get their own house in order before they could hope for long-cherished independence, which most world powers continue to support in principle.

“I do not believe we will be able to get a state unless we are able to reunify our country,” he said of the political divide that has split the West Bank from the coastal enclave of Gaza, governed since 2007 by the Islamist group Hamas.
He means this on his terms, not those of Hamas...
Attempts by Abbas, who rules in the West Bank, to bridge this divide over the past year have failed amid mutual recriminations and plans to hold long-awaited elections this month across the Palestinian territories were shelved.

“The reconciliation process is in the deep freeze. Let’s face it,” Fayyad said, adding that the Palestinians should forge ahead with election plans regardless of opposition from Hamas in order to re-engage with a disillusioned populace.

“A basic right of our people is being violated. The right of being able to chose our leadership,” he said.

The last presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2006 and many Palestinians, including Abbas and the Hamas leadership, have said a fresh vote can happen only if both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are involved.

Strains have been reported in relations between Abbas and Fayyad since the prime minister refused to hand over a letter from the president to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu laying out Palestinian grievances over the failure of talks. Fayyad disagreed with the initiative last month but said the episode was now behind them and confirmed the two were working on the formation of a new government, where he will remain prime minister but will likely lose the finance portfolio.

Given the task of building institutions in readiness for statehood, Fayyad said his job was being imperilled by a lack of resources, with Arab nations failing to hand over promised aid.

“There is an issue of survivability of the Palestinian Authority given the acute financial crisis we are going through,” he said, adding his government needed a “few hundred million dollars” to keep afloat.

The Palestinian Authority - which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank - depends on donor aid from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to pay the salaries of public workers, including teachers and security personnel.

The Palestinians had planned for foreign aid of about $1.1 billion in 2011, but received just under $750 million and are lagging again in donations this year. No reason has been given for the failure of some Arab allies to honor their pledges.
They're Arabs. You need a reason?
Despite the many challenges facing the Palestinians and the lengthy breakdown in peace negotiations, Fayyad said he was convinced that independence would be achieved within 10 years.

“Occupation is not only a major political failure, but given its oppressive nature it is also a moral failure for Israel. It is not something that can be sustained,” he said. “Walls have gone down elsewhere. Why should here be an exception?”
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Red Thingy, UN appeal for Paleo hunger strikers
2012-05-09
GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross called on Israel on Tuesday to transfer six Palestinians who have been on hunger strike for weeks to hospital and allow visits from their families.
No.
All six are in prison under Israel’s long-standing policy of detaining people it suspects of security offenses or plotting attacks in a closed military proceeding between security forces and military judges rather than after a formal trial. Prison terms for “administrative detainees” are renewable for six months at a time.

In a statement, the humanitarian agency said that the six are in “imminent danger of dying,” although it upheld their right to choose whether or not they wanted to receive treatment.
Israel should uphold its right to put food in front of the prisoners, and nothing further...
“We urge the detaining authorities to transfer all six detainees without delay to a suitable hospital so that their condition can be continuously monitored and so that they can receive specialized medical and nursing care,” said Juan Pedro Schaerer, head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The six have refused food for between 47 and 71 days, and are among more than 1,600 detainees who have been on hunger strike for some three weeks, according to the ICRC.

“Their main demands are for a resumption of family visits from Gaza and for an end to solitary confinement in Israeli places of detention,” it said.
Israel demands that they not kill Israelis anymore. Deal?
The fate of the hunger strikers has touched a raw nerve in the Palestinian Territories with daily demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to support the protest.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said there would be serious repercussions if any of the prisoners died.

“The most tragic thing is if you look at the list of demands they have presented Israel ... they are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners,” he said in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “There is a clear violation of the Geneva conventions.”

The ICRC’s Shaerer stressed that the strikers’ right to fast is protected by international conventions.
Which ones?
“While we are in favor of any medical treatment that could benefit the detainees, we would like to point out that, under resolutions adopted by the World Medical Association, the detainees are entitled to freely choose whether to consent to be fed or to receive medical treatment,” he said.
So they chose not to eat. Okay. Now they want medical treatment for not eating; the therapy for which is...food. Put a platter in front of them and tell them it's medicine.
“It is essential that their choice be respected and their human dignity preserved,” he said.

On Monday, Israel’s Supreme Court turned down an appeal by two Palestinians who have been on hunger strike for the past 70 days, to free them from detention without trial. But in its decision the court said security authorities should consider freeing them for medical reasons.

The scope of the hunger strike has posed a new challenge to Israel, which has come under international criticism over detention without trial and could face a violent Palestinian backlash if any of the protesters die.
Paleos get violent for all sorts of reasons. What's one more?
The office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also voiced concern on the strikers’ fate.

“International law is clear: administrative detention should only be used in exceptional cases and only for imperative reasons of security. Administrative detainees have the right to challenge the lawfulness of the detention,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing.

Independent UN investigators and UN rights bodies have raised concerns about Israel’s frequent and extensive use of administrative detention, including of children, infringing on detainees right to a fair trial, Shamdasani said.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PA donors warn Abbas not to replace Fayyad
2012-04-24
Which side calls Al Capone or "Mugs" Moran?
Donor countries have warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against trying to replace Prime Minister Salam Fayyad or confiscate his control over the PA Finance Ministry, a Western diplomat based in Israel told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

The diplomat said that the donors were aware of Abbas's repeated attempts to remove Fayyad from power and seize control over the ministry.

"We won't allow this to happen," the diplomat said. "We have made it clear to President Abbas that international aid will be affected if he or Fatah remove Fayyad."
Sneaky rat that I am, I would double-dog dare Mahmoud to can Fayyad...
The warning came as sources in Ramallah confirmed that a sharp crisis has erupted between Abbas and Fayyad.

The sources said that the tensions between the two men began after Abbas announced his intention to reshuffle the cabinet. The announcement surprised Fayyad who, according to the sources, had not been notified in advance of the planned reshuffle.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Freed US aid to help ease Palestinian crisis: PM
2012-03-25
RAMALLAH/WASHINGTON: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday the release of $88.6 million in development funds by US lawmakers would help ease a fiscal crisis in the aid-dependent Palestinian economy.
Aid-dependent? There's an understatement. Gaza doesn't have any income other than what the Gazooks extort in aid or from each other...
“This is very important in order to help us deal with the economic crisis,” Fayyad told reporters in Ramallah.

In August Republican lawmakers put a hold on $147 million in US assistance because they objected to a Palestinian push for recognition at the United Nations, arguing that Palestinian statehood should be achieved through peace talks with Israel.

US lawmakers on Friday released $88.6 million in development aid for the Palestinians that they had held up since last summer, a move that should help ease a fiscal crisis in the aid-dependent Palestinian economy.
No dagnabbit, don't release the aid. Make the Paleos give up something verifiable in the peace process before you do.
Representative Kay Granger announced she was ready for the entire $147 million in US assistance that had been frozen since August to go to the Palestinians. But the other Republican who had a “hold” on the funds, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, limited the release to $88.6 million, saying in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was all she was willing to free up.

Ros-Lehtinen also said she was releasing the money with the understanding it would not be used for “assistance and recovery in Hamas-controlled Gaza,” West Bank road construction, or trade and tourism promotion in the Palestinian territories. The United States correctly considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

The letter did not say how the freed-up funds would be spent, but Ros-Lehtinen suggested earlier this week she would be willing to approve money targeted for water programs, health and food for the Palestinians.

Both Granger and Ros-Lehtinen had barred expenditure of the US funds since last year because they objected to the Palestinian push for recognition at the United Nations. They argued that the path to Palestinian statehood was through a peace treaty with Israel.

Granger said on Friday she had decided the money should be released for humanitarian reasons and to help stability in the Palestinian territories in a time of uncertainty across the Middle East.
Let the Saudis fund the Paleo payroll.
“I have taken a strong position on aid to the PA (Palestinian Authority) to send a message that seeking statehood at the United Nations, forming a unity government with Hamas and walking away from the negotiating table with Israel were not pathways to peace,” Granger said.

“Right now it is in our interest — and the interest of our allies in the region — to allow aid to flow to address security and humanitarian concerns.”

Granger chairs the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee in charge of foreign aid, while Ros-Lehtinen chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Technically, the Obama administration can override the objections of individual lawmakers and spend aid money once it has been appropriated by Congress. But successive administrations have generally deferred to holds on funds by key members of relevant committees.
We'll see if a second-term Champ honors that...
Ros-Lehtinen complained in her letter to Clinton and US Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah that the administration had threatened to spend the money “over congressional objections” if the lawmakers’ holds were not lifted.

“I am disappointed that the administration would employ hard-ball tactics against Congress,” she said.

Both Granger and Ros-Lehtinen have been pressured by the Obama administration as well as the international community to release the development aid, which Congress had appropriated for fiscal year 2011.

There have been growing warnings, including from the International Monetary Fund, that the Palestinians are facing a deepening financial crisis due to a drop in aid from Western backers and wealthy Gulf states as well as Israeli restrictions on trade. The IMF urged donors last week to meet their aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has a projected 2012 budget deficit of $1.1 billion.
Based on expenses of $1.1 billion and an income of zero...
The United States has committed over $4 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians since the mid-1990s, the Congressional Research Service says. Since fiscal year 2008, the annual US contribution has averaged $600 million, the CRS says. Usually, that includes about $200 million in direct budgetary aid and $100 million in security aid for training Palestinian security forces, in addition to development aid, the CRS says.

Congress voted in December to allow aid to the Palestinians to continue in fiscal 2012 — the current fiscal year — as long as they were not admitted as a state to any more UN organizations. The Palestinians won admission to UNESCO in October, a move that prompted the United States to cut off funding to that agency.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PA urges donor countries to pay up
2012-03-22
These guys are becoming incompetent. Maybe they should hire Tony Soprano as an advisory consultant. Tony never seemed to have much trouble getting his "donors" to pay up.
Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad says donations necessary to help $1 billion PA fiscal deficit; Norwegian FM says Israel should transfer PA tax revenue.
The Palestinian Authority Thursday hailed as "important" a decision by the international donors to provide financial aid to the Palestinians, but urged the countries to channel the promised funds immediately.

Representatives of international donors met in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the financial crisis in the PA.

At the end of the meeting, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere urged the donors to ensure the contribution of $1 billion in assistance [to the PA] in 2012.

He also urged Israel to facilitate the transfer of tax revenues belonging to the PA.

The donor's "Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine" said after the meeting in Brussels that the global economic slowdown has created a $1 billion deficit in the PA's budget.

It noted that at the beginning of this year the PA has "experienced a severe fiscal crisis, which threatens to become protracted given the recent and projected declines in donor assistance" and the situation could soon be "totally unmanageable."

The committee appealed to Israel to "ensure monthly transfers to the PA in a predictable manner."

PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad described the donor countries' decision as important, but stressed the need to transfer the promised funds quickly to help the PA government overcome the severe financial crisis.

Fayyad said that it was also important that Arab countries fulfill their financial obligations toward the Palestinians.

Fayyad denied that the donors had conditioned continued financial aid to the Palestinians on their abandoning efforts to unilaterally achieve UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

Fayyad, who attended the meeting in Brussels, complained that Israel was preventing the PA from carrying out a development plan in Area C of the West Bank which is under exclusive Israeli control and which constitutes nearly 60% of the land.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fayyad: Israeli sanctions starting to bite
2011-11-28
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says he will be unable to pay the the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants, as Israeli economic sanctions start to bite.

Israel decided last month to suspend the monthly transfer of about $100 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of Fayyad’s Palestinian Authority. The transfers, along with foreign aid, are crucial for keeping Fayyad’s government afloat. Nearly one-third of the close to 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza depend on public sector salaries.

Fayyad told reporters Sunday that the sanctions have a “devastating impact” on the Palestinian economy.

Israel suspended the transfers in retaliation for Palestinian attempts to win international recognition for a state of Palestine.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Green light given for new Israeli land grab
2011-10-19
JERUSALEM: A plan for settling thousands more Jews in a strategic part of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem has quietly cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle, threatening to cut a link between Jerusalem and the West Bank and endanger already slim peace prospects.
Hey Paleos: you might want to make peace before all the choice land is gone and you find yourselves living in Mauritania...
The proposed Givat Hamatos development would complete a Jewish band around a part of East Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, complicating any future partition of the city.

"This is a game changer," Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem expert, said of Givat Hamatos. While relatively small in size, "this is a mega-settlement in terms of impact," he added.

The plan calls for about 2,600 apartments, including about 1,800 for Givat Hamatos and 800 for an expansion of Beit Safafa, an adjacent Palestinian neighborhood,
So both the Israelis and the Palestinians are to get more housing. Do the Palestinians not want more housing for themselves?
Seidemann said. Construction could begin by the second half of 2012, he said. Because of Israel's construction of a half-ring of Jewish enclaves in East Jerusalem, only a few land corridors are left between its core Arab neighborhoods and the West Bank.

Givat Hamatos would cut off one of the key remaining ones -- cutting off the area of Beit Safafa from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

"It's another slap in the face of all those international efforts being made toward the resumption of a meaningful political process," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said. "It's not only damaging to our own interests, it's damaging to all those who have a vested interest in a two-state solution," referring to a Palestinian state next to Israel.

The new building plan drew condemnation over the weekend from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Oh, they condemn everything. Carry on...
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Britain
UK gov't site removes minister's Israel 'land grab' claim
2011-08-28
Conservative Alan Duncan, minister for international development, claimed Israel deprives Palestinians of water in government video posted on his department website last month.
The usual Evil Israelis/Innocent Palestinians stuff.
During his visit to the Palestinian territories, Duncan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pledging to tackle poverty. Britain is set to provide up to £349 million to support the Palestinians over the next four years.
Did he get his prime minister's agreement before signing? It seems to me his government is in drastic budget cutting mode, and adding line items oughtn't sit well with the voters...

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