Whilst the media is trumpeting that the one day conference in Paris led to a number of countries pledging some US$7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians, it is interesting to reflect on the fact that the Israelis are largely to blame for the plight in which the Palestinians find themselves.
That aside, how one is to view the outcome of the conference and the aid offered up, depends on who and what you read.
The IHT reports it thus:
"The donors' meeting is a high-profile effort to build on the peace talks with Israel last month to which the Bush administration played host in Annapolis, Maryland. Those talks were the first serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in years, and the two sides pledged to seek a final peace agreement by the end of 2008.
It was the largest Palestinian donor meeting since 1996, and the latest in a string of aid-raising events for the Palestinians over the years. The Palestinians are one of the highest aid-dependent populations in the world; government salaries account for 27 percent of the Palestinian Authority's gross domestic product, according to a new World Bank report.
Despite the new aid pledges, the Palestinian Authority's economy will continue to contract unless Israel eases its blockage of the Gaza Strip and removes key internal checkpoints to allow Palestinians to move freely in the West Bank, the World Bank cautioned in its report.
The World Bank estimated that without such measures, the Palestinian gross domestic product would probably contract by 2 percent annually over the next five years. If Israel does ease the restrictions, and if the Palestinians put promised reforms in place, the economy could grow 5 percent a year, the report added."
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera views things this way:
"On the face of it, the one-day international donor meeting in Paris was a fantastic success.
Billions of dollars were promised in aid to the Palestinian Authority to salvage its ailing economy, and all the while political rhetoric flew about in support of Palestinian statehood.
But financial pledges, even if and when they are delivered to the Palestinians, are meaningless in the long term without the exertion of international political pressure to end the 40-year old Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
And:
"Yet in the absence of a clearly defined political plan, financial aid will amount to no more than a sticking plaster that cannot stop a profusely bleeding wound.
In Paris there was neither a show of an international political will to address the occupation itself nor any serious pressure placed on Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods.
Warnings by the World Bank that an Israeli reversal of movement restriction policies and closure of borders is a pre-requisite for the recovery of the Palestinian economy, went unheeded.
The donors' conference, as the American-sponsored Annapolis meeting a few weeks ago, was instead driven by Israeli and US security priorities, namely backing, if not, encouraging a Palestinian Authority confrontation against Hamas rather than addressing the reality of the Israeli occupation."
That aside, how one is to view the outcome of the conference and the aid offered up, depends on who and what you read.
The IHT reports it thus:
"The donors' meeting is a high-profile effort to build on the peace talks with Israel last month to which the Bush administration played host in Annapolis, Maryland. Those talks were the first serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in years, and the two sides pledged to seek a final peace agreement by the end of 2008.
It was the largest Palestinian donor meeting since 1996, and the latest in a string of aid-raising events for the Palestinians over the years. The Palestinians are one of the highest aid-dependent populations in the world; government salaries account for 27 percent of the Palestinian Authority's gross domestic product, according to a new World Bank report.
Despite the new aid pledges, the Palestinian Authority's economy will continue to contract unless Israel eases its blockage of the Gaza Strip and removes key internal checkpoints to allow Palestinians to move freely in the West Bank, the World Bank cautioned in its report.
The World Bank estimated that without such measures, the Palestinian gross domestic product would probably contract by 2 percent annually over the next five years. If Israel does ease the restrictions, and if the Palestinians put promised reforms in place, the economy could grow 5 percent a year, the report added."
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera views things this way:
"On the face of it, the one-day international donor meeting in Paris was a fantastic success.
Billions of dollars were promised in aid to the Palestinian Authority to salvage its ailing economy, and all the while political rhetoric flew about in support of Palestinian statehood.
But financial pledges, even if and when they are delivered to the Palestinians, are meaningless in the long term without the exertion of international political pressure to end the 40-year old Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
And:
"Yet in the absence of a clearly defined political plan, financial aid will amount to no more than a sticking plaster that cannot stop a profusely bleeding wound.
In Paris there was neither a show of an international political will to address the occupation itself nor any serious pressure placed on Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods.
Warnings by the World Bank that an Israeli reversal of movement restriction policies and closure of borders is a pre-requisite for the recovery of the Palestinian economy, went unheeded.
The donors' conference, as the American-sponsored Annapolis meeting a few weeks ago, was instead driven by Israeli and US security priorities, namely backing, if not, encouraging a Palestinian Authority confrontation against Hamas rather than addressing the reality of the Israeli occupation."
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