Corrupt leaders made black hole of cash in Arab Palestine

12 Billion US dollars have been pumped into the Palestinian Authority during the past decade. But the economy has not improved.

This  information was provided by Dr. Ghania Malhis in an address to the United Nation’s Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People last week. Malhis works for the Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah.

Malhis confirms that the Palestinian Authority is squandering massive amounts of foreign financial aid. He notes that that foreign governments have donated over USD12 billion to the PA over the past decade. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as UNRWA have pumped even more into the Palestinian economy.

Malhis explained that these sums are enormous considering that the PA’s GDP is only about USD 4.5 billion a year. The amount of foreign aid is astronomic, considered that that there are only around three million Palestinians living in the area. This confirms that Arab Palestinians receive more foreign financial aid per capita than anyone else in the world.

And yet, the Palestinian economy is actually in worse shape than it was a decade ago.

«One cannot but feel that these resources have been wasted. When the outcome of more than a 12 billion dollar investment results in such disastrous numbers, then it is obvious that immense mistakes were made on a strategic level»,  said Malhis.

Besides outright corruption and theft, Malhis blamed the situation on the PA’s inability to adequately manage economic affairs. He is noting that the production capacity in Palestinian areas was far higher prior to the start of the land-for-peace process, i.e., when the area was under Israeli control.

Source: Israeli Magazine, Israel Today.