Palestine, a Prisoner of Salaries

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

A person cannot rebel against the plate he eats from unless he has first found himself an alternative plate, and he is not expected to defy the will of the plate’s owner so long as he has not secured his own bread and his children’s bread. And if such a person is content to remain lazy, searching for excuses for his laziness, he will keep clinging to the owner of the plate even if that owner is his enemy. And can an enemy feed his enemy? Yes — if the bread will turn the enemy into a pliant tool, destroy his national and religious values and his sense of pride and dignity, demolish his spirit of defiance, and entrench and dress up his defeat.

This is exactly what was warned of at the birth of the Oslo Accord. The matter was very dangerous because it placed the Palestinian people’s daily bread, even if only partially, in the hands of Israel and America, meaning that the curve of the Palestinian people’s will would begin to decline. As the agreements were implemented and the institution of the donor states took shape, the financial equation began to become clear, and it now stands as follows:

The money is officially in the hands of the donor states;

It is America and Israel that generally decide when and how this money is disbursed to the Palestinian Authority;

About 54% of this money comes from the Arabs, about 30% from Europe, about 7% from America, and the rest from other countries such as Japan;

About 30% of the money is deducted by the donor states as administrative expenses;

If America and Israel decide to halt the flow of funds, the institutions of the Palestinian Authority grind to a halt. Salaries stop, and the Authority’s institutions become unable to carry out their day-to-day work.

In order to fully harness the Palestinian people, two important steps were taken, in direct cooperation with the Palestinian Authority itself:

Enormously increasing the number of government employees, even where there was no need for such employment. The largest share of these positions went to the security services, which, according to the agreements, are required to defend Israeli security against Palestinian “terrorism”;

Destroying Palestinian production facilities by encouraging foreign imports, which wiped out a large part of local industry and threw thousands of workers into the street; and by striking at the Palestinian farmer, whose material burdens grow heavier year after year, until he feels the land is a burden rather than a source of livelihood;

It is clear that the donor states aimed to increase Palestinian dependence on aid, at the expense of production;

Now, there are about 170,000 government employees;

About half of these employees are members of the security services, who receive about 45% of the total payroll;

About 81% of employees are either members of Fatah, its supporters, or its sycophants. About 97% of the members of the security services belong to Fatah, and most civil employees also belong to Fatah. Factional diversity and broader public representation appear, on the whole, mainly in the Ministries of Education and Health.

The conclusion is that the Arabs pay money to the donor states so that Israel can, in the end, control the Palestinian people’s daily bread through salaries, most of which go to services that the agreements describe as responsible for combating “terrorism.” That is, the Arabs are paying money so that the Palestinians will stand against themselves. This crushing result became apparent when Abu Mazen said:

“Bread is more important than democracy,” in reference to non-compliance with the conditions of the so-called Quartet;

And when the Prime Minister said that the people would get no salaries without him, meaning precisely that he complies with what those who control the money want, so that they continue paying the salaries;

And when a former militant said: “I am with whoever pays the salary”; and when an employee said: “The salary is my religion and my patriotism”; and when another said: “I will fight anyone who opposes the policies that bring us money”; and when a third said: “I prefer the occupation to having my salary cut”; and a fourth said: “If the Palestinian state is going to bring us poverty, then I don’t want it”; and a fifth said: “May God make the occupation last forever, so that the 6,000 shekels keep coming”; and a sixth said: “I have no conscience, because my conscience is mortgaged to my salary”; and a seventh said: “Resisting the occupation is a crime, because it impoverishes people.”

Economic development

In light of the many comments about the crime of tying the Palestinian people and their political will to the salary, the Palestinian Authority, represented by its president Mahmoud Abbas and its prime minister Salam Fayyad, made promises of bringing about the economic development necessary for self-reliance, to the point of holding a conference for businessmen in the city of Bethlehem in order to launch a campaign to establish economic projects and employ people. The donor states had previously promised to establish factories to employ unemployed Palestinians, and so they established Israeli industrial projects on the western side of the 1949 armistice line, in the Tulkarm area in particular, while the Palestinians remained at the mercy of Israeli work permits.

…because development means liberating the Palestinian people’s political will, a thing that stands in total contradiction to Zionist-American policy. It has been clear since 1967 that Israel and America are working to place the Palestinian daily bread under their control, so that the Palestinian is unable to mount a genuinely effective resistance, and it was not possible to change this policy after the Palestinian leadership placed itself, and the people, inside the cage of Oslo. It is naive for anyone to think that Israel and America will allow economic development that would enable the Palestinian people to eat by the sweat of their own brow.

The development the Western states have focused on is the development of services, landline and mobile telephones foremost among them, and the establishment of non-governmental organizations concerned with political, social, and cultural matters. The reasons behind this are as follows:

Satisfying some Palestinian businessmen enthusiastic about the Oslo Accord and what followed it, who see the West as the great savior and the ideal to be emulated;

Increasing the material pressure on people resulting from their use of the new services, which means more expenses and bills. Services have expanded far faster than production, and economists know the risks entailed by this. Indeed, it appears production has shrunk even as services have expanded, meaning people will resort to begging to cover the shortfall;

Cultural and social influence over people through various political, social, and cultural programs, aimed at changing the Palestinian people’s concepts and creating a new educational climate in which people accept Israel, normalize relations with it, and become lax about their national rights.

If there were genuine seriousness about bringing about development, the Palestinian Authority would have set up a program to bring the old factories and workshops back into operation, and would have revived the farmer and brought the land back to life. We do not want iron and steel factories; we want life to return to the shoe workshops of Hebron, to watermelon cultivation in the Marj Ibn Amer plain, and to the textile mills of Beit Jala. The problem is that the Authority will not dare do this, because it would violate the Paris Economic Protocol, which placed the Palestinian people under Western economic occupation, on top of the Israeli occupation.

Arab money

The question is: would the Arab money that is paid to the donor states be enough for us, if it came to us directly from the Arabs? Yes, it would certainly be enough for us, if some of us did not steal and embezzle it. But do the Arabs have the courage to rebel against the Western states? No, they have absolutely no such courage, because their political will, too, has been nullified in favor of the Western states.

Palestinian dialogue

Palestinian dialogue is commendable and necessary, but it will not lead to an agreement that is actually implemented. Any agreement between the Palestinian factions can only be applied if the Palestinian people give up the money that comes from the donor states. And as long as the donor states refuse to disburse the salary should an understanding be reached between the Palestinian Authority and those called “terrorists,” the dialogue is predestined to stagnation or failure. Palestinian dialogue can lead to tangible, practical results on the ground only if the Palestinians free themselves from the yoke of financial occupation.

The disappearance of the salary

The Western states will not go on collecting money and giving it to the Palestinians forever, and one day, not too far off, the tap of money will stop, and it will be redirected toward other activities serving the interests of the states that control it. The money of the Westerners — which is, for the most part, Arab money — will stop once the Palestinian people have paid the price represented by being fully stripped of their own cause and by a sharp emotional estrangement being created between the individual and the homeland. Their policies, from the Madrid process until now, have been aimed in this direction, and they have succeeded to a great extent among broad sectors of the Palestinian people, turning the Palestinian cause into nothing more than next month’s salary, with the cooperation of Palestinians themselves.

Israel and America have succeeded in changing many concepts on the Palestinian scene, and have redirected a large part of people’s concerns toward material matters and economic hardship, and they are proceeding with a certain degree of success in destroying the people morally and socially, with the aim of tearing it apart and replacing the struggle against the occupation with internal conflicts.

When the two states see that the people have become submissive, reduced to mere individuals searching for their daily bread regardless of what they pay in pride, dignity, and national rights, the salary will disappear. Then the people will find themselves with no money and no Palestinian cause. The Western states do not give money out of pity or mercy, but in order to obtain results represented by the disappearance of the people from the stage.

The wise person is the one who guards against the evil of the future, even if the remedy is harsh. Many initiatives and ideas have been proposed to avoid this curse, but the Palestinian factions do not respond.

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