Main focus of Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Aid for the Palestinians

An international conference of donors in Paris has promised a total of 5.1 billion euros in financial support for the Palestinians. The EU has committed to payments of 440 million euros. Will that help create an independent Palestinian state?

Le Monde - France

The daily highlights the limits of the promised aid. "The check-points that have been scattered around the West Bank and the blockades imposed on the Gaza Strip in the name of security have led for seven years to an incomparable recession. ... Dealing with what is most urgent, the international community has chosen to give more and more massive support to Palestinian public financing. It pays salaries directly into the accounts of the Authority's civil servants, which is the fastest method of redistribution. This choice, dictated by circumstances, is economical nonsense. It can only be a short-term solution until a political process contributes an in-depth modification of the situation, allowing Palestinians, who are no doubt the most qualified in the region, to at last live and move around as freely as anywhere else in the world." (18/12/2007)

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Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"Money was only the superficial issue in the Paris meeting of 90 countries that wish to support the reconstruction of the Palestinian territories," explains Rudolf Chimelli. "In reality, political goals were practically the only matter discussed within the first hour of this donors' conference: participants spoke of peace between Palestinians and Israelis, of the establishment of a Palestinian state before the end of next year, of economic stability as the basis for secure coexistence. … The Israelis must return to the borders of 1967 and grant the Palestinians the right to live in East Jerusalem. Because a Palestinian state on 18 percent of the former British Mandate, and that divided into cantons through strategic occupied corridors, would not be viable even with transfusions of money." (18/12/2007)

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Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

Money and humanitarian aid alone will not help the Palestinians, says Jürg Bischof. "The World Bank has determined that the Palestinian economy will continue to shrink as long as Israel maintains the current blockades, even if the billions now promised from Paris actually flow. ... That the 'international community' practically fails to complain about Israel's violations of international law, such as through collective punishments or the construction of settlements, is their moral problem. But covering up this problem with a pile of cash neither brings moral relief nor a solution to the conflict. For that, firm political pressure is needed toward a quick improvement of the living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, and toward a greater readiness of the Israelis and Palestinians alike to make concessions." (18/12/2007)

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