News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) $9.4 billion in aid poured into the Palestinian Authorities territories in the past 15 years have failed to meet its goals, with evidence in recent years pointing to a reversal in development, because donors overlooked everyday insecurity and instability, according to a study in a special issue of the Lancet medical journal focusing on Arab health in PA territories.

Rajaie Batniji of Oxford University, one of the study's authors, said the international community had done little to stop threats to the basic security of the territories' 3.8 million inhabitants, targeting the effects of local violence rather than its causes. "Ensuring that every person has the security to survive, to function normally is a requirement for development efforts to work," he said. "Giving aid without doing things to open the economy, giving aid without taking measures to ensure people are safe might not achieve the effects we're all hoping for."