Corruption Devours Palestine

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Palestinian Authority has managed to achieve enormous accomplishments in the field of corruption during the few years of its presence in the West Bank and Gaza. In this domain it achieved what great states failed to achieve over the course of a hundred years. Through its outstanding performance in corruption, opportunism, and despotism, it managed to construct a hideous image of the Palestinian human being — or at least of the Palestinian official who forbids nothing and permits nothing and knows no meaning of discipline or responsibility — and to create an atmosphere of suspicion among citizens and disregard for the public interest that turned the very idea of establishing a state into material for mockery and derision. The various media outlets carried tragic images of the irresponsible and disgraceful conduct of many Palestinian officials, and the experiences of others cemented the image of the irresponsible Palestinian official who wounds his own people, exploits them, plunders their wealth, misleads them, and exhausts their strength. These hideous images followed one after another to such a degree that knowledge of them was no longer confined to intellectuals and the well-informed, but extended to ordinary people in the Arab street and in the European and American streets as well.

The Palestinian street came to know full well how states began dealing with the Palestinian official on the basis of a lack of trust, and preferred that their aid reach the Palestinians directly through personal dealings. This is what some Arab states did, sending their own staff to deal directly with the people without the mediation of the Palestinian Authority, and some European states began doing likewise. Matters reached the point where America and Israel began expressing feelings of pity toward the Palestinian people and demanding reform. Of course, their expressions carry no love for the Palestinian people, but conceal beneath them whatever might serve their own interests under a humanitarian cover.

Historical Background

When I cast my memory back through the years, I see that the outcome the Palestinian image has arrived at is the sum result of a general Palestinian policy the Palestinian leadership pursued throughout the years of its leadership. For instance, this leadership’s policy toward the Jordanian people, during the presence of the resistance in Jordan, was not radically different from the policy currently pursued in Palestine. What did the Palestinian cause gain, for instance, from insulting a Jordanian tribal sheikh who enjoyed ample respect in Jordanian society, or from interfering in people’s private affairs? Nor was this policy any different during the presence in Lebanon. There were those in Jordan and Lebanon lying in wait for the Palestinians and the Palestinian cause, but the Palestinian leadership’s own conduct — its disregard, its laxity, its moral dissolution, and its hollow, false revolutionary slogans — aided those very people lying in wait.

It was required that the Palestinian leadership possess a general moral program, or an elevated moral system, applied precisely, with the aim of winning the goodwill of the Arab societies among whom Palestinians and resistance fighters lived. It is among the basics of successful conduct that a person try to succeed within his own surroundings and win the support of the people he interacts with, who can form his own base of support. It is clear that the Palestinian leadership did precisely the opposite, and that the moral system it followed was entirely designed to stir up hatred and malice against the Palestinians and the resistance. There was no Palestinian discipline within the ranks of the resistance, and there was no accountability, no trials, no assigning of responsibility. Rather, the reckless were blessed, in the societies where they were present, with promotions and elevated posts. These people became the spokesmen for Palestine and the resistance, leaderships whose company was feared.

The leadership earned the Palestinian resistance a bad reputation in Jordan, to the point of creating a deep rift in the unity of the two peoples that persists to this day. The regime bears part of the responsibility for this rift, but the blame falls on those who cannot achieve liberation without a gathering of efforts, not on those who establish relations with Israel. The resistance left Jordan, and found no one shedding tears over it. Nor was the situation any better in Lebanon. The leadership left behind it a legacy of disregard for the public interest and of shameful interference in people’s private affairs.

The leadership did the same in Tunisia. The Tunisian people loved the people of Palestine and formed good impressions of them in their minds — but only until the leadership relocated to Tunisia. The people of Tunisia never imagined that the revolutionary ethics of the Palestinian leadership could reach the level it reached. Many leaders behaved in improper ways, and the leadership of the [PLO] organization did nothing to correct or restrain them. Nor was the situation any different in Kuwait, which saw an intensive Palestinian presence.

Whoever follows the Palestinian leadership’s policy ends up concluding that it is a policy built on destroying the Palestinian image, and that it is not a policy of ignorance or of an absence of calculation. It is a deliberate, methodical policy with clear features and goals. The one who errs retreats, and the fool improves his mental and behavioral performance over time, but the Palestinian arena has not witnessed any retreat or correction — rather, it has witnessed a deepening of the pattern of corruption and abuse against the Palestinian people, in their own home. And this is the greatest piece of evidence we cling to in showing that sabotage, corruption, and corrupting others amount to a deliberate leadership approach, plotted in advance, with prior determination to carry it out.

The Sites and Methods of Corruption

The corruption the Authority adopted has swept through the various fields of life to such a degree that an observer of affairs arrives at the conviction that the only integrated program the Authority ever brought and implements is corruption itself. Corruption has not been confined to one particular area, sparing other areas its evils, but has extended to encompass the various public activities and institutions, and has reached even private activities and internal relationships at every level — individual, official, and collective. The corrupt imposed their corruption swiftly and with a high level of efficiency, reflecting great experience and expertise, clear in its inputs and its outputs. The Authority has established a uniquely singular system of corruption that deserves study and scrutiny.

What follows is a summary of the chief sites and methods of this corruption:

First: Concentration of Power

PA President Yasser Arafat established a system of his own in which he alone commands and forbids, grants and withholds, marries off and divorces, takes and gives. He owned the money, and the media ran after him, so the atmosphere of one-man rule and the winning of obedience and loyalty were made ready for him. Years passed with him truly the sole decision-maker on the internal scene, without any rival, and ostensibly the decision-maker on the external scene as well. He intervened in every small and great matter, from appointing a correspondent in some obscure institution to signing agreements, and he remained the sole decision-maker throughout.

This concentration of power has historical roots, Arab and international dimensions, and Zionist and Israeli interests behind it. But there is no room to examine these now, because the important thing is to point out that Arafat exercised absolute power, which prepared fertile ground for every kind of corruption. Arafat could have put his power to some use other than the path of acquisition, clientelism, and domination through the money that came to be known in the field of Arab politics as “the fodder” [al-‘alaf], but it becomes clear from following his policy from 1965 until now that he has interests that do not meet the interests of the Palestinian people. For this reason it is possible to say that Arafat bears the primary responsibility for all acts of corruption in Palestine, despite the active and energetic participation of his own aides. His aides are his own creation, and he therefore remains responsible for their general and official conduct.

Second: The Social and Moral Dimensions

The Authority carried out a great many acts designed to tear apart the social and moral fabric and spread hatred, malice, and envy among the people. The most important of these steps are as follows:

It surrounded itself with a corrupt retinue skilled in the methods of embezzlement, charlatanism, hypocrisy, and lying, cultivating its own private interests at the people’s expense, and steeping itself in pleasures even inside the enemy’s bars and brothels. Such a retinue cannot possibly spread virtue among the people.

It did not adopt competence as the primary basis for obtaining a job, but rather clientelism.

It stripped the weak of their rights in favor of the powerful oppressor, and constructed a judicial system that enacts injustice and spreads the exercise of raw power, frequently bringing in judges who neither fear God nor are restrained by conscience.

[The text here is damaged in the original and resumes mid-word:] …responsibility is the employee who fails to do his job and spreads corruption within his institution. The good employee is the ignorant one who exploits his position and extorts others. His ugly conduct is the very basis of his promotion, so long as he is not too greatly exposed; but if the scandal becomes the talk of every tongue, there is no objection to punishing him — by removing him from the public eye to take up another post in a new location, along with a promotion in rank.

The prevailing method for receiving citizens’ complaints consisted of listening and receiving written complaints, and then forwarding them to the very person complained about, so that a battle would erupt between him and the complainant.

The Authority made itself a partner in people’s economic interests, so that no factory could be established without a partner from the Authority, without any compensation in return.

It occasionally worked to hold some of the weak to account and punish them for acts they had committed, in order to appear before the people as possessing principles and lofty ethics.

The trusted aide is the one whose hand remains the lower hand: the head of the Authority comes asking for money for himself, and jobs and gifts for his relatives, friends, and mistresses, while whoever wants to provide services to citizens, and lacks a base enough soul for this, has no place with the president.

The required aide is one who accepts becoming entangled in shameful acts that make him a slave to the president, so that he will not oppose him, while whoever stands firm on his religion, his character, or a living conscience will have only brought harm upon himself.

It spread its security apparatuses everywhere in order to suppress people, thereby destroying trust among people and spreading suspicion in their souls.

Third: The Economic Dimension

The country was left to plunder and pillage by the Palestinian Authority, and whatever economic planning existed was purely destructive and sabotaging planning. Meanwhile, the situation in a case like ours requires care over every last penny, with planning conducted under the principle that what we have suffices for us all. When the intifada began, many concerned intellectuals and factions repeatedly demanded the formulation of an economic program suited to the conditions of the Palestinian people, but the Authority took no positive action. The result was that a considerable number of people found themselves without work and without income, which affected the social fabric and the element of active belonging.

What follows are the key steps the Authority took to guarantee the ruin of the national economy:

Failing to develop agriculture and neglecting farmers in a way that made cultivating the land unprofitable. The Ministry of Agriculture’s budget in one year reached 1.5% of the general budget, though it later rose to around 5% because of harsh criticism.

It became a partner, without compensation, in most investments, which repelled Palestinian investors’ desire to invest and drove them to take their money and leave the homeland.

It encouraged investment in the field of consumption and entertainment rather than in production, focusing on restaurants, resorts, bars, delicious cuisine, and importing male and female singers.

It reinforced dependence on others for financial and food support, thereby reinforcing the “lower hand,” laziness, and dependency.

It did not use the funds it received from Arab or donor states in a manner serving investment and production, but rather to pay the salaries of employees who were mostly mercenaries undeserving of the posts they held, and to buy loyalties.

“Fodder” is very important in humiliating people and teaching them baseness and abjection. This is what the Authority did with the Palestinian people’s own money, in order to guarantee the existence of a class of “cheerers” who defend the leadership and its acts with fervor.

It gave support funds to those who did not need support, and withheld it from the farmers, workers, and craftsmen who actually produce. It made enemies of the people of production and befriended the idle and the notables with empty minds and wide-open appetites.

Fourth: The Security Dimension

The security dimension is the very nerve of the Palestinian people, since it lives through a phase of liberation that attracts many enemies eager to infiltrate its ranks. Any authority connected to the Palestinian homeland and people is supposed to take every possible measure to provide security and preserve the confidentiality of Palestinian work and its organizations. But the ruling Authority took a number of measures that make it easier for others to infiltrate Palestinian ranks, among which I mention the following:

It signed agreements with Israel under which it agreed to pursue nationalists and resistance fighters as though they were terrorists, and not to pursue those who cooperate with Israel.

It provided a flood of security information to Israel through its own security apparatuses.

Its security apparatuses busied themselves monitoring citizens’ affairs and intimidating them, in the Arab style that violates the regime rather than protecting the homeland.

It arrested many strugglers and mujahideen, threw them into prisons, and delivered many Palestinian resistance fighters into Israeli prisons through security cooperation with Israel.

A number of collaborators with Israel reached important posts within the Palestinian Authority, while many nationally committed individuals were sidelined or dismissed.

It pursued some minor spies in order to tell people it was pursuing collaborators, but in truth it was neither serious nor concerned about the matter. It did carry out the execution of two collaborators after enormous popular pressure.

It did nothing to develop programs to improve Palestinian security performance, pursue spies, and eliminate the phenomenon of espionage.

It turned the security apparatuses into a playground for the ignorant, for thugs, and for the base. These people used their influence to terrorize and extort citizens, and used their weapons to spread panic and settle personal scores. They are present in various villages and towns, engaging in disgraceful acts that make the citizen lose faith in his homeland and in his fellow citizens.

Fifth: The Cultural Dimension

Trivial literature is the hallmark of the Palestinian Authority era. Its favored writers are those who praise and glorify, and who have nothing to do with critical literature that sees points of weakness and corrects them, and sees points of strength and supports them.

The Authority did nothing to develop a cultural program that unites the Palestinian people wherever they are present.

It worked diligently to sever the Palestinian people, culturally and politically, from its Arab and Islamic surroundings. Bigoted “Palestinianism” is the heading that governs the Authority’s cultural conduct.

It did not pursue a policy of cultural advancement for the nation, but adopted instead a cultural heritage built on bigotry and tribalism that gnaws away at the sons of Palestine.

Its security surveillance apparatuses extended to newspapers, magazines, Friday sermons, seminars, and lectures, and reached into private gatherings, spreading its eyes through informants and spies everywhere. In this way the Authority spread a culture in which “the walls have ears,” and a culture of “whoever marries my mother is my uncle.”

Sixth: The Educational Dimension

The Authority worked to keep teachers, male and female, under the pressure of financial hardship so that they would not approach teaching with enthusiasm and energy. It burdened them with an excess of teaching hours and numbers of students per class and with assignments that are nearly useless. And it set the student against the teacher under the pretext of modern educational theories.

The departments of education became crowded with ignorant teachers who do a disservice to the educational and pedagogical process — naturally, because the Authority follows a policy of clientelism built on mediation and favoritism, and does not adopt competence as the primary basis for hiring.

It did not allocate sufficient funds to build schools, and maintained overcrowding and afternoon-shift teaching. This deprives the student of the chance at a good education and crushes his morale.

It preserved rote-learning education and did not move toward education that relies on free thinking and self-driven creativity.

The Authority uses male and female students for political purposes, such as receptions and cheering for this leader or that, and endorsing particular policies.

It bent the educational curricula to Israel’s will, altering certain religious, historical, and geographic material to match Israeli wishes.

Conclusion

Corruption has reached the various fields of life in the West Bank and Gaza. We find some people, particularly those loyal to the Palestinian Authority, placing responsibility for what is happening on the occupation, and claiming that good will prevail once the occupation is gone. But this corruption is, in truth, an approach that had been in place at the PLO throughout every stage of its dissolution and its wandering. The PLO and the Authority, led by Arafat, do not need the occupation in order to train in corruption or to be forced down the path of corruption. The occupation does not force anyone to steal his brother’s money, does not exert itself searching out fallen women in order to set up a brothel, and does not drag men of influence to the bars of Netanya and Tel Aviv.

The important thing in this matter is that this corruption is deliberate and premeditated. It is not merely a set of mistakes, but a matter of sins and crimes against the Palestinian people. It is my conviction that this corruption serves to weaken the Palestinian people, who are themselves a source of strength against Israel. Why does Arafat carry out, and insist that his aides carry out, acts of corruption? I believe the matter goes beyond the mere chasing after personal interests.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الفساد يأكل فلسطين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.