The cost of corruption
Jul. 1, 2009
bassem eid , THE JERUSALEM POST
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443695537&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

The Palestinian Authority, formed in 1994 in collaboration between the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the government of Israel as a
result of the Oslo Accords, controlled the entire area of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip until June 2007. Then Hamas forces took over the Strip,
seizing the military facilities controlled by Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas's
management, and proceeded to execute officers in the security forces. In
response, Abbas dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council and declared a
state of emergency.

Despite this body blow, the corruption of the PA remains as strong as ever,
with more new layers constantly revealing themselves to the population at
large.

A close friend who recently moved from Gaza City to Ramallah with his wife
and two young children told me that the cost of each passport for a Gazan
citizen is almost NIS 1,200, as opposed to NIS 235 prior to the Hamas
takeover - just one of the consequences of the political disputes between
the governments of Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in Ramallah.

After the takeover, several administrative offices had been formed in Gaza
whose duties included the distribution of passports to civilians. I can't
fathom how these offices transfer the passport requests from Gaza to
Ramallah. I do not rule out the possibility that they are in fact smuggled
through the tunnels and sent via Egyptian mail to Ramallah.

Today there is a serious passport shortage in the Gaza Strip. The PA, to
help remedy that problem, is supposed to pass out about 5,000 new passports
every month to citizens in the Gaza Strip. Hamas uses passports by
selectively distributing them to the people within its government instead of
making them available to anyone applying for them. The lack of passports in
Gaza has brought a major increase in demand and even 10,000 new passports
issued a month would not be enough to relieve the deficit.

The PA doesn't want to provide the necessary number of passports to the Gaza
Strip, since it sees the dearth of passports as a useful tool with which to
pressure the Hamas government into returning what it acquired in the
takeover.

Hamas, however, is far more worried about regional politics than in the life
of the Gaza Strip population.

I WOULD like to add another anecdote to this story: My brother, Hatem
Abdulqader, was appointed 40 days ago to be the Minister of Jerusalem
Affairs in the Salaam Fayad government. However, his new employer wasn't
able to provide him with an office. No one in the government was able to
tell my brother to his face that every minister needs a chair, a table and
coffee utensils to serve the people who come to his office to congratulate
him. When I heard about this, I lent my brother NIS 10,000 to find an
office.

Eventually, he had to build one for himself. He had approached the Ministry
of Finance many times requesting an office, a chair and a desk, but was told
time again that the PA's cash register was empty.

This episode enraged me. Why is it necessity to appoint so many ministers to
form a government? Why is the PA in need of $100 million each month for
salaries? Where does all this money go? What do all these ministers do for
their people?

In the television broadcast showing my brother being sworn in as minister,
he raised his hand and swore by the Koran to be loyal to his people and
country. If I were him, I would refuse to take this vow in front of Abbas or
Fayad. I would be willing to take the oath only when the people standing in
front of me are responsible enough to uphold this vow themselves.

The Fayad government actually wanted to use my brother to commit perjury, to
swear in front of the entire Palestinian nation in the name of a useless
government.

The writer is the founder and director of the Palestinian Human Rights
Monitoring Group based in east Jerusalem.