Incredible compilation of Palestinian corruption, the EU & US won’t look at

Since 1994, the EU has provided certain representatives of the Palestinian people with financial support of nearly €5.6 billion.

Discounting Arab & American contributors to this scam, Europe gives the PA 40% ABOVE the annual budget of Sydney, Australia, a city of roughly the same population.

 

Need I ask: Where has this money gone?…and why do the Palestinians continue to receive free money?

 

Surprise !!! Corruption in the Palestinian Authority

A member of US Congress has called to cut off aid to the PA,  due to the growing impact of PMW – Palestinian Media Watch exposure  of salaries being paid to terrorists . This is reverberating  in International Parliaments.

In December 2013, the  Dutch Parliament in an overwhelming majority vote called on their government to demand the PA stop salary payments to terrorist prisoners.

This is the Motion which was passed in Dutch Parliament

 “The [Dutch] parliament … noting that since 2011 the Palestinian Authority has been giving money to convicted Palestinians in Israeli prisons (i.e., Palestinians convicted of terror offenses); whereas each [prisoner] can count on a monthly payment of € 282 for a sentence of less than three years, rising to € 2,419 if convicted for a sentence of more than 30 years; noting that those punished in the highest [salary] category include those responsible for terrorist attacks in which innocent children, women and men have been killed, [the Dutch parliament] calls on the [Dutch] Government in its bilateral contacts with the Palestinian Authority to demand it stop this support as it can be interpreted as encouragement for crime.” [Voted in Dutch Parliament, Nov. 27, 2013″]

Now US Congressman Jim Gerlach has written to Sec. of State John Kerry asking that the US stop foreign aid to the PA because it pays salaries and stipends to “compensate convicted terrorists and/or their families.”


Dear Secretary [of State John] Kerry:

Recent news reports have indicated that the PA has provided monetary payments or salaries to individuals convicted of committing acts of terrorism, including those recently released as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. According to such reports (i.e., reports published by PMW, -Ed.), these salaries or stipends are provided by the PA to convicted terrorists… What is the U.S. Department of State doing specifically to immediately halt any U.S. taxpayer dollars going to the PA until this program is stopped?” U.S. foreign aid…. must not be used by the PA directly or indirectly to compensate convicted terrorists and/or their families… I look forward to your swift response… Jim Gerlach, Member of Congress, [Dec. 5, 2013]“

Full letter

The impact of impact of PMW reports in other Parliaments is growing thanks to their recent funding request.

British Parliament:

MP Henderson:

“A culture of hate has wormed its way into the very fibre of Palestinian society… No peace agreement will be able to guarantee peace… if a generation of Palestinians is growing up indoctrinated to hate Israel, Jews and the West.”

Norwegian Parliament:

MP Morten Høglund:

“We must use the power we have, and as a major donor to the PA, we must fight fire with fire and say that we will stop the aid unless the PA takes immediate action to stop this type of hate message.” 

Four Norwegian opposition parties signed this statement, just before they won the recent elections:

 “[We] find it unacceptable that Norwegian money goes directly or indirectly to fund financial aid for terrorists.”

After their election victory these parties formed a new government and significant changes in Norwegian policy are expected.

 

Israeli TV recently celebrated PMW’s success in Norway.

The TV interview opened with the words:

“I think we should give you [PMW]

a small or even a big Israel Prize”

and ended with the words:

“Thank you for all you are doing for the Jewish people.”

 

Danish Parliament:

MP Søren Espersen to Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal:

“Norway has started [investigating its funding of the PA], the UK has started… What will the Foreign Minister do to ensure us that our money is spent on [the intended] purpose, and not on terrorists?” 

Swedish Parliament proposed legislation*

“Sweden and the EU cannot justify paying sizeable financial aid to the PA without requiring… that the PA immediately cease … financing terrorist activities and rewarding terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Therefore Sweden is suspending aid to PA.”

 *This proposed legislation did not pass.

The Wall Street Journal summed up one example of PMW impact in Europe:

 ”A report by Palestinian Media Watch recently revealed that British taxpayers have been paying salaries to terrorists… Many British taxpayers, struggling to pay their family’s way through a recession, might rightly wonder why their money is going to pay as much as £2,000 a month to people serving the longest sentences.”

Seems like the word is spreading beyond Europe…

Australia MP praises PMW impact:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Australian_coat_of_arms_1912_edit.jpgAfter Australian MPs spent a week in Israel meeting senior government officials and important Israeli organizations, an MP wrote to PMW:

 ”Keep up the good work. I am massively pro-Israel but some of the others were very undecided and uninformed before they came here. Your performance did more to sway them than any other person we spoke to.” 

US Congress
Based on PMW material, different pieces of legislation are being proposed: one that will condition US funding on the PA’s taking steps against incitement and one limiting aid to the PA because of PA payments to terrorists.

Back in October 13, 2013 this was reported..

The Palestinian Authority squandered nearly €2 billion ($2.7 billion) in European aid through corruption and mismanagement, a British newspaper claimed Sunday, leaking the contents of a not-yet-published European document.

According to the article, in Britain’s Sunday Times, the European Court of Auditors (ECA), an EU organ set up in 1975 to audit the EU’s income and spending, found that Europe had little control over €1.95 billion ($2.64 billion) spent in the West Bank and Gaza between 2008 and 2012, noting “significant shortcomings.”

A Palestinian opinion poll conducted in July 2012 found that 71 percent of respondents believed that corruption existed in PA institutions under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas. Some 57% of respondents said the same of Hamas-controlled institutions in the Gaza Strip.

YET we find that on Jan 1st  2014 –Israel National News

Obama To Give PA $440 Million in 2014

PLO rep. in Washington reports growth in US financial aid; PA requests joint committee with US on political and financial issues.

The US financial aid designated for the Palestinian Authority (PA) is set to grow considerably in 2014 to $440 million, up from $426 million in 2013. The aid aims to bail out the PA, which in June was revealed to owe $4.2 billion in internal and external debt.

Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) representative in Washington DC, Maen Erekat, reported the figure, saying the transfer was already agreed upon by Congress, but will be influenced by progress in the peace talks with Israel. The PA recently declared the talks have failed, and threatened diplomatic action against Israel.

The financial aid reveals intentions of greater cooperation between the US and the PA.

It appears that in the USA ‘the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing’

It goes on to say:

PA leadership has requested that the US renew a joint committee between the US and PA which was active in the 1990s, so as to discuss common political and financial issues, revealed Erekat.

A PLO representative told the Judea and Samaria-based Arab Ma’an News Agency that most of the US aid will be used for building and development projects, adding that $70 million will be directly transferred to the PA Finance Ministry.

However, the PA has used its foreign-backed funds to reward terrorism. 

Reports in November revealed that the PA gave at least $50,000 as a grant to each terrorist released in “gestures” to the peace talks. The released terrorists were also given monthly salaries ranging from 10,000 shekels ($2,800) to 14,000 shekels ($4,000).

Additionally, a former PLO official recently acknowledged PA support for the Nazis during World War II.

The point is here, surely in light of what the EU and PMW have shown why is President Obama doing this?

Allegations that officials of the Palestinian Authority, including Mahmoud Abbas have systematically embezzled public funds are frequent.

Abbas’s mentor and predecessor, Yasser Arafat was accused of embezzling billions of dollars of Palestinian money. This perceived corruption of the Fatah leadership is believed to have contributed to a convincing win by Hamas in the January 2006 parliamentary election. Fatah leaders were accused of siphoning funds from ministry budgets, passing out patronage jobs, accepting favors and gifts from suppliers and contractors.

I have a huge list of URLs with Arafat information. The world pours millions upon millions of dollars into Gaza and, Judaea and Samaria. These people steal it and the population suffers for lack of infrastructure.

The source for specific allegations against Abbas was one of Arafat’s most trusted aides, Mohammed Rashid, accused by the PA of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, who threatened to expose corruption scandals in the Palestinian Authority. For many years, Rashid served as Arafat’s financial advisor and was given a free hand to handle hundreds of millions of dollars that were poured on the Palestinian Authority and the PLO by US, EU and Arab donors. According to Rashid Abbas’s net worth was $US100 million.

July 10, 2012 Abbas and his sons were attacked, in the US Congress, for their alleged corruption. The debate was entitled Chronic Kleptocracy: Corruption Within the Palestinian Political Establishment.

In his testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, Elliott Abrams stated that

“Corruption is an insidious destroyer not only of Palestinian public finance but of faith in the entire political system. And it has certainly had an impact on potential donors. I can tell you from my own experience, as an American official seeking financial assistance for the PA from Gulf Arab governments, that I was often told “why should we give them money when their officials will just steal it?”

Yasser & Tarek AbbasThe conspicuous wealth of Abbas’s own sons, Yasser and Tarek, has been noted in Palestinian society since at least 2009, when Reuters first published a series of articles tying the sons to several business deals, including a few that had U.S. taxpayer support. In a Foreign Policy article author Jonathan Schanzer suggested four ways in which the Abbas family has become rich. They include monopolies on American made cigarettes sold in the territories; US Aid funding; public works projects, such as road and school construction, on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and special preferences for retail enterprises. It was strongly implied that the sons lineage was the main credential in receiving these contracts.

It goes on ad infinitum

This is from January:

How the Palestinian Authority Fleeced the European Union

The European court of auditors recently recommended that the European Commission stop wasting money on Palestinian Authority employees – who do not come to work. The report where this recommendation is found is quite the read.

Palestinians are directly funded by the EU through a program called “Pegase DFS (direct financial support).” Between 2007 and 2012, the Palestinians received 1.4 billion Euro – not in some lousy trifles as flour or diesel fuel, but in hard cash.

According to the report, since 1994, the EU and some of its country-members have provided the Palestinian people (to be precise, some certain representatives of the Palestinian people) with financial support of nearly €5.6 billion.

Only after 18 years, in 2012, was an audit held. UNRWA, a UN agency of similar persuasion, had its first independent audit at its jubilee 50th anniversary. These audits are no doubt a Zionist plot.

The auditors, admittedly, do show compassion to Palestinians and condemn vile crimes of the Zionist regime. For instance, the report finds that the PA’s fiscal difficulties “are to considerable degree due to the continuing restrictions placed on it by Israel.” But the report does reveal some startling truths.

The Palestinian Authority, for example, receives funding through ENPI (the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument). Besides the PA, the Instrument provides funding to Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Lybia, Moldova, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine. The total population of these countries is 284 million people and out of this number, Palestinians, including Gaza denizens, comprise 1.5 percent. But since Palestinians need the money much more than, say, Syrian refugees fleeing a civil war, the PA receives 20 percent of the total ENPI funding.

This ridiculous amount is only 40 percent larger than the annual budget of Sydney, Australia, a city of roughly the same population. Where has this money gone?

According to the audit, the money was first allocated in 2004 to support economic and political reforms. By 2007, other funding had increased significantly. The reforms themselves, however, didn’t go so well; at the time of audit, there was a new, much better action plan being written. In other words, the PA never committed to actually reform anything, they just took the money.

There once was a show called “Supermarket Sweep,” in which the participants went on a timed race through a supermarket, stuffing their shopping baskets with goods and groceries and were allowed to keep whatever they could grab. This, more or less, is the picture that comes to mind when one reads about the annual process of budgeting aid for the Palestinian people.

Pegase’s funding is decided upon nearly blindly, and there is no accountability. This is all in the report.

But don’t think that the money is disbursed at random. Not at all, there are strict rules and procedures for selecting only the worthy civil servants of the PA who can receive it. How many people get their salaries thanks to Pegase? According to the audit, between 2008 and 2012, the number of civil servants and pensioners who were regularly receiving part or all of their salary via Pegase had increased from 75,502 to 84,320 (by 11%), which comprises approximately one half of the total of 170,000 employees and pensioners of the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, the total average monthly salary of these people had increased by 37 percent.

The audit says that the PA tries hard to limit the growth in public sector employment to a modest 3,000 people yearly. However, even this increase in workforce is an additional burden on the already overstretched PA budget, because Palestinian leaders make no effort to reform the PA or make structural changes.

The fact that in Gaza employees do not show up for work, but do collect their paychecks, is by now well known. When the board of auditors selected at random 10 employees from Gaza for interviews, three admitted openly that they do not work.

It is not clear how, if at all, this has been explained by the Palestinians. I believe it wasn’t. How can you explain to these Europeans, strangers to the hardships of Israeli occupation, why you need free money?

 

View original News and Views from Jews Down Under publication at: http://jewsdownunder.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/surprise-corruption-in-the-palestinian-authority/