An article in the current issue of US News and World Report, which can be seen , is entitled, \"A State of Corruption: Palestinians desire nationhood, but is *this* the kind of nation they want?\"
Excerpts from the article:
\"Since the 1993 Oslo peace accord… Yasser Arafat has run a system built on corruption and repression. His aides reap money from many sources in all corners of the dirt-poor territories - brazenly showing off their newfound wealth with grand new homes and fancy cars. Arafat\'s security forces - a polite name for armed militias - provide the muscle. \"You cannot survive without giving these guys a lot of money at the end of each month,\" says Amjad al-Masri, whose family owns a large auto garage in Nablus. \"That\'s the name of the game.\"
\"…[M]onths of violence and privation are stirring a growing anger toward the Palestinian Authority. A poll in mid-May found 91 percent of Palestinians calling for \"fundamental reform.\" Palestinians say they are fed up with suffering for the sake of freedom from Israeli military rule, only to suffer repression and extortion under Palestinian police… The owner of a West Bank chain of food stores says he has been paying \"taxes\" regularly to a PA security force, whose men threatened to jail his children and denounce him as an Israeli collaborator - effectively a death sentence if he didn\'t pay up. \"When I went to complain to more senior officials in the PA,\" the businessman says, \"they also asked for money.\"
\"Even charity is not beyond the reach of corrupt officials. When the mother of a 5-year-old deaf boy, Ayham Abdel Aziz, petitioned Arafat personally for $20,000 for the boy\'s emergency surgery, Arafat gave her a signed voucher and sent her to the PA\'s Finance Ministry in Ramallah. At the ministry, officials told her to sign for the $20,000 - then handed her $5,000, taking as \"commission\" the other $15,000. \"The most senior PA officials are stealing the money that belongs to the people. Wherever you go you are asked to pay a commission or a bribe,\" says Umaimah Abu Shusheh, chairwoman of the Palestinian Union for the Handicapped. \"Ayham\'s case is only one of thousands.\"
\"…Rare is the Palestinian prepared to challenge Arafat. Sattar Kassem … was shot in the legs and hand on his way home in 1995 after he told a Hamas newspaper that Arafat\'s rule amounted to \"tyranny which grasps our people by the throat.\"… Asked if he had thought to seek justice, he scoffs: \"Of course I didn\'t. There\'s no rule of law here.\"
\"There\'s also no free press, making it hard for Palestinians to air grievances… Perhaps the most Orwellian expression in the Palestinian Authority is the term \"justice system.\" … A former Nablus judge calls the court system \"a big joke,\" saying many judges are \"subject to intimidation and threats from PA security commanders and senior officials in Arafat\'s office.\" …
Excerpts from the article:
\"Since the 1993 Oslo peace accord… Yasser Arafat has run a system built on corruption and repression. His aides reap money from many sources in all corners of the dirt-poor territories - brazenly showing off their newfound wealth with grand new homes and fancy cars. Arafat\'s security forces - a polite name for armed militias - provide the muscle. \"You cannot survive without giving these guys a lot of money at the end of each month,\" says Amjad al-Masri, whose family owns a large auto garage in Nablus. \"That\'s the name of the game.\"
\"…[M]onths of violence and privation are stirring a growing anger toward the Palestinian Authority. A poll in mid-May found 91 percent of Palestinians calling for \"fundamental reform.\" Palestinians say they are fed up with suffering for the sake of freedom from Israeli military rule, only to suffer repression and extortion under Palestinian police… The owner of a West Bank chain of food stores says he has been paying \"taxes\" regularly to a PA security force, whose men threatened to jail his children and denounce him as an Israeli collaborator - effectively a death sentence if he didn\'t pay up. \"When I went to complain to more senior officials in the PA,\" the businessman says, \"they also asked for money.\"
\"Even charity is not beyond the reach of corrupt officials. When the mother of a 5-year-old deaf boy, Ayham Abdel Aziz, petitioned Arafat personally for $20,000 for the boy\'s emergency surgery, Arafat gave her a signed voucher and sent her to the PA\'s Finance Ministry in Ramallah. At the ministry, officials told her to sign for the $20,000 - then handed her $5,000, taking as \"commission\" the other $15,000. \"The most senior PA officials are stealing the money that belongs to the people. Wherever you go you are asked to pay a commission or a bribe,\" says Umaimah Abu Shusheh, chairwoman of the Palestinian Union for the Handicapped. \"Ayham\'s case is only one of thousands.\"
\"…Rare is the Palestinian prepared to challenge Arafat. Sattar Kassem … was shot in the legs and hand on his way home in 1995 after he told a Hamas newspaper that Arafat\'s rule amounted to \"tyranny which grasps our people by the throat.\"… Asked if he had thought to seek justice, he scoffs: \"Of course I didn\'t. There\'s no rule of law here.\"
\"There\'s also no free press, making it hard for Palestinians to air grievances… Perhaps the most Orwellian expression in the Palestinian Authority is the term \"justice system.\" … A former Nablus judge calls the court system \"a big joke,\" saying many judges are \"subject to intimidation and threats from PA security commanders and senior officials in Arafat\'s office.\" …