PRESS RELEASE: NEW REPORT ANALYSES EUROPEAN AID TO PALESTINIANS - FINDS EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY

www.prweb.com/releases/2004/8/prweb151832.htm

Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC) report documents dozens of recent disclosures, many from Arab sources little reported in Europe and the West.

LONDON, UK (PRWEB) August 31, 2004 -- The Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC) has released a new report detailing the diversion of unprecedented sums of financial aid from the Palestinian people towards corruption and violence.

The FPC report is entitled "Managing European Taxpayers' Money: Supporting The Palestinian Arabs – A Study In Transparency". It publishes evidence, which substantiates a compelling connection between European funding and ongoing Palestinian corruption and terrorism. It also highlights the utter failure of European organisations to monitor where these funds have been directed. The report details theft, nepotism, and embezzlement on the part of the PA, supported by incompetence and apathy on the part of European agencies.

Since 1993, the European Union has contributed over 2 billion Euros directly and indirectly to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Member states have donated a further 2 Euro billion in the same period.

FPC's work raises the following major issues, each of which strike at the very sprit and letter of the European Union's Constitution:

* European aid has not reached its intended target - the Palestinian people. It has been diverted towards graft, terrorism and incitement to hatred.

* Despite repeated denials from senior European politicians and civil servants, terrorists are on the Palestinian Authority payroll. This includes, in particular, members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who have openly admitted their direct roles in acts of murder. The salaries of these murderers come directly from budgets provided by European government aid, even though the Al-Aqsa Brigades have been officially classified as terrorists by Europe.

* European taxpayers' funds have not been managed transparently in everything connected with aid to the PA and to the Palestinian people. The facts have been concealed and continue to be concealed from European taxpayers.

* The methods used to fund the PA might even be considered to be money laundering.

FPC's study does not deal with the question of whether aid should be given to the Palestinians, or what level of aid is appropriate. It assumes that providing aid to the Palestinian people is important and helpful to the cause of peace. The FPC report focuses on whether aid transfers from European sources are accomplishing the stated goals of the donor community, and on the transparency of its management.

According to FPC's spokesperson, David Winter, "This new report highlights an astonishing lack of controls by the authorities in the European Union. The real facts about the continuing failure of the massive programme of international aid to the Palestinian people remain largely unreported. Our report shows that the watchdogs have been asleep on the job and it isn’t for lack of public warning."

The FPC’s report comes on the heels of growing pressure within Palestinian ranks calling for an end to decades of corrupt leadership. According to Mohammed Dahlan, a former PA Interior Minister, quoted in "The Guardian" earlier this month, all of the funds which foreign countries donated to the Palestinian Authority, a total of $5bn, "have gone down the drain and we don't know to where."

Winter adds: "Every piece of information in our report has been thoroughly checked. The extensive footnoting of the report allows the reader to check any and every fact presented."

Why is there a need for this report? Winter says: "We believe that, if we can draw sufficient attention to the issues, the political drive will be created to ensure that the Palestinian Arabs receive the intended benefit from the billions in aid channeled through their leadership and institutions. With proper management, we believe that mutual tolerance can be encouraged and ultimately regional peace can be achieved. Aid money will then be available to resolve other, often more pressing, humanitarian issues – possibly such as the crisis in Sudan and others."

Asked whether the European Commission had misled the European Parliament, Winter responded, "This is a key question which the FPC report addresses. For example, there have been countless reassurances that the PA payroll is tightly controlled. It is international donors who help pay for these employees. In fact the payroll has been found to be bloated with fictitious names or comprised of groups adjudged as terrorists by the EU itself."

$10 billion in aid has been funneled to the Palestinians. Have these funds, which are paid for by European taxpayers, been transferred to the right people? Have they been managed in acceptable ways? Has the Palestinian public benefited?

The availability of this new report means that the interested public can read the facts and decide for themselves.

[The Funding for Peace Coalition is an international ad hoc group of concerned citizens, interested in peace and alarmed at the absence of adequate controls and fundamental responsibility in the management of European aid to the Middle East.

The FPC represents people of a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds and of political views. What unites them is the concern that international aid is not reaching the Palestinian people, and not making the intended contribution to peace in the region. The FPC's activities are undertaken entirely on a voluntary basis by its members.]

 

SO, WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE?

What has happened to Western contributions to the Palestinian Authority?
August 31, 2004

[The following was specially written for this email list by one of the authors of today's FPC report.]

It is popular to claim that poverty in the Palestinian territories is caused by Israeli troops. Yet, the World Bank notes that: "... donor disbursements to the Palestinians currently amount to approximately US$1 billion per year or US$310 per person¾one of the highest per capita rates in the history of foreign assistance..."

In fact, since the Oslo Accords of 1993, the European Union and member states have contributed over 4 billion euro directly and indirectly to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The United States government has donated over $1.3 billion.

So, where has all the money gone?

Despite the massive investment, many segments of Palestinian society remain poor. The taxpayers remain cheated. Yet, as the situation continues to burn, literally, few donor governments provide accurate and transparent accounting how the money was spent.

Reports from Members of the European Parliament, questioning whether European taxpayers’ funds have been directed towards corruption and terrorism, are due to be debated in the autumn. Americans have recently been treated to revelations how levies were imposed by the PA on part of their aid, some of which ended up supporting acts of violence.

 

SUMMARY OF REPORT

The report ("Managing European Taxpayers' Money: Supporting The Palestinian Arabs – A Study In Transparency") states:

"The EC has been categorical when commenting on the composition of the PA payroll and the ability to monitor it. "If any evidence comes to light that the PA is knowingly employing members of terrorist organisations, the PA will need to act immediately to take these people off the payroll and bring them to justice... The salaries are paid through the banking system to verifiable individual accounts and according to the detailed monthly payroll that the [PA] Finance Ministry now fully controls since September 2001, as part of our earlier conditionalities."

In fact there is a swell of evidence from differing sources to confirm that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are an integral part of the Fatah organisation, funded at least in part by the PA. It should be noted that Chairman Arafat, who receives a salary as Chairman of the PA and as the leader of Fatah, is the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades ... Over the years, from 25% to 60% of the PA budget has been supported by overseas donations. The EU has become the largest single contributor of direct budgetary assistance, giving 112 million euro between January 2003 and June 2004 alone..."

 

"DON'T LET THE FANCY WORDS CONFUSE YOU

Dahlan Helps OLAF Find the Light"
By David Frankfurter
August 13, 2004.

(URLs in this article are linked at www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/)

One dark night, a man was searching frantically under a street light. A passerby stopped to help. "What are you looking for?" he asked. "I dropped a valuable ring when I was further down the road," was the answer. "So why are you looking so far away from where you lost it?" was the obvious follow-on. "Because the light is over here!" answered the searcher.

I just wrote to you about the statement by the EU fraud squad, OLAF, that "To date, there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism."

Mohammed Dahlan seems to feel that OLAF needs some direction , so today's report in the Jerusalem Post helps guide them away from the street lamp, back to the places evidence might be found.

"Former PA security minister Mohammed Dahlan on Thursday revealed that at least two of the Fatah militias, the Jenin Martyrs Brigades and the Abu Rish Brigades, were financed and armed by the PA leadership. In addition to their responsibility for the chaos in the Gaza Strip, the two groups have also been involved in attacks on the IDF and settlers.

"Dahlan told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was aware of the fact that these groups were receiving money and weapons from the PA...

"The Jenin Martyrs Brigades, whose members kidnapped Jabali, is financed and armed by the PA. The group's members are PA employees. As for the Abu Rish Brigades, they too are financed and armed by the PA because they are members of the National Security Forces. Arafat knows who is financing them."

Given that the EU provides a significant portion of the budgets that the PA uses to pay these terrorists, and given that the EC has said: "...If any evidence comes to light that the PA is knowingly employing members of terrorist organisations, the PA will need to act immediately to take these people off the payroll and bring them to justice."

So how will the EU to answer these new charges? Reading the many statements, reports, answers to MEP questions etc. of the European Commission one knows the standard answer. The reports of the EU Parliamentary Working Group on Budgetary Assistance to the Palestinian Authority put it well:

"Given the fungible nature of EU budgetary support, it is not possible to link any salary payment... to EU funding"

Don't let the fancy words confuse you. Making money fungible means that the EU deliberately transfers all overseas aid to the PA to a single general-purpose bank account, where it is mingled with funds from other sources. That way, the EU can deny funding terror. Simply stated, this is money-laundering. A criminal offence in most modern democracies - mainly because it has been known to be common practice amongst criminals and many subversive organizations for some decades.

 

"USAID FUNDS SOCCER STADIUM NAMED AFTER MURDERER OF AMERICANS"

Loopholes in US Anti-Terror Laws
Palestinian Media Watch
June 16, 2004

USAID continues to fund numerous projects in PA areas, totaling more than $174 million in 2003, with similar funding planned for 2004.

Last month the PA inaugurated the "Martyr Salakh Khalaf (soccer) Stadium” built by USAID at a cost of $500,000. Salakh Khalaf, better known as Abu Iyad, was head of the Black September terrorist organization, and was responsible for the murder of two American diplomats, Cleo Allen Noel, Jr. and George Curtis Moore in Sudan in 1973, and the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. The following appeared this week in the PA daily: "The Shahid [Martyr] Salakh Khalaf [Abu Iyad] Stadium was inaugurated [Friday]… speeches were made by UNICEF representative in Palestine, Jonathan Hutchen... [and] in the name of USAID, who financed the project..."

(The full version of this can be seen at www.pmw.org.il/4%20Loopholes%20in%20US%20Anti-Terror%20Laws_b.htm)

 

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON BBC

An email sent by a subscriber to this email list to Richard Sambrook, Head of BBC News:

Subject: Unreported Iranian Atrocity
Date: August 30, 2004
To: Richard.Sambrook@bbc.co.uk

Dear Richard Sambrook

Here's a simple one.

With, seemingly, every known avenue of news gathering at your disposal, how in the name of God, was it ever possible for your mighty organisation to have failed to report, or in the leastwise - mention, the public hanging in Iran, of a sixteen year old girl -- from a crane, as was so shockingly reported by Alasdair Palmer in Yesterdays Sunday Telegraph?

Given that your department is ever-ready to report the 'latest' Mideast incident in graphic detail, please explain how it was remotely possible to have kept the British public, and it follows - the world, ignorant of this further heinous example of Sharia law?

How right Alasdair Palmer is in stating: 'Imagine the response if an American girl sixteen year old was hanged for having sex!

An answer please!

Maurice Sinclair
London NW8