Who benefits from billions pledged for Gaza reconstruction? Israel is the true beneficiary of this aid money ($5.4 billion). The self-declared international community has once again footed the reconstruction bill as it arms Israel with the weaponry and ensures it the impunity that only rewards its brutal onslaught on Gaza and essentially guarantees its repetition ... Half of the pledges raised at Sunday’s conference will not even make it to Gaza. Those funds will be diverted to the Palestinian Authority’s budget for unspecified purposes. ...Last year, 26 percent of the PA’s budget was spent on security (compared with just 16 percent for education, nine percent for health and a minuscule one percent on agriculture, historically the backbone of the Palestinian economy). The current paradigm of security coordination, state Amrov and Tartir, is “to criminalize resistance against the occupation and leave Israel — and its trusted minions — in sole possession of the use of arms against a defenseless population.” The international aid agency Oxfam warned last week that money pledged at the global donor conference “will languish in bank accounts for decades before it reaches people, unless long-standing Israeli restrictions on imports are lifted.” The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) condemns the failure to bring meaningful pressure on Israel to end the siege that had brought the economy to its knees even before the destruction it wrought on Gaza this summer — during which 419 businesses and workshops were damaged, with 128 completely destroyed. “Donor money pledges are no substitute for holding Israel accountable for its grave violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, and achieving justice for the Palestinian victims,” the BNC stated on Sunday. electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/who-benefits-billions-pledged-gaza-reconstruction
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 06:07:12 +0000
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