Growth that Palestine can believe in

[Violet_Crumble]

A rise in GDP may look good on paper, but it obscures the public's daily hardship and the need for real political changes


Sam Bahour guardian.co.uk, Monday 1 March 2010 10.30 GMT

A serious misconception is being propagated by the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. Media, international organisations, foreign governments and Palestinians-at-large are being coaxed into believing that the flurry of economic activity in the West Bank is economic development towards statehood. The facts on the ground rip this argument to pieces, just as Israel continues to micromanage the economic pieces of the intended future state of Palestine towards systemic stagnation.

I can already hear the voices – "but be positive", "we must start from somewhere", "we are acting unilaterally toward statehood", "but we had 7% GDP growth last year," etc. Being positive is one thing, but being delusional and acquiescing the military occupation that controls every serious aspect of our lives, especially the economic ones, is unacceptable.

I don't question the well-meaning intentions (with the exception of the occupier) of all the economic players involved in promoting this misconception that West Bankers are on a rapid train of economic growth.

The Palestinian leadership has very little – or any – political capital left, so focusing on economic activities – something I attest is very different than economic development toward statehood – is expected. Add to this the fact that some key Palestinian players, namely prime minister Salam Fayyad, have already started campaigning for the possible presidential elections, and one can easily see the self-serving need to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony every day or two.

The Israelis could not ask for better. Under the cloak of the Israeli prime minister's slogan of "economic peace", Israel has been able to pull the wool over the world's eyes as it creates irreversible facts on the ground, such as illegal Jewish-only settlements, and continues to squeeze the Palestinian society so hard that many Palestinians are voluntarily emigrating – something Israel failed to totally accomplish forcibly during multiple military adventures, most notably in 1948 and 1967. This slow but steady exodus is emptying Palestine of its human capital which is already severely depleted by the restrictions placed upon us.

The donor community, which continues to generously prop up the Palestinian government in Ramallah also can't really be blamed for wanting to have an economic framework to justify its continued financial support to the Palestinian Authority. The states behind these funds have been politically handicapped for decades as they await the next US political cue. The next best thing for them is to claim institution building and reform within the context of economic peace. The mission of Tony Blair, the Quartet's special envoy, is exactly that: an economic mission and not a political one, even though the Quartet is a political animal (US, Russia, EU and the UN) that carries the last remaining clout to address the core political issues that are bottlenecking serious resolution of the conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/01/gdp-growth-palestine-hardship

(just testing another theory. I'll be back in an hour or so to check on it)