The title of this post might also be “How the Palestinians Cook the Books”. It was prompted by comments from American Democratic Party Candidates that American money should be taken from Israel and given to the Palestinian Authority.
To start. We need to look at the ingredients. There is a Palestinian Authority (PA) under President Mahmoud Abba that is the de facto civil government for most Palestinians. The major political party in the PA is the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). On paper, the legislative branch of the PA is called “The Legislative Council”. They also have a “Central Election Committee”. Finally, we have a lot of organizations and nations, including the US and UN, have donated money to the PA to keep it operating. The US stopped direct aid, possibly because of what I am about to write.
There have been elections in the areas controlled by the PA for FIFTEEN years! Despite that, The elections committee was allocated nearly $30 million between 2011 and 2018. Where did that money really go? Into somebody’s pocket?
PA President Abbas dissolved the Legislative Council in December, 2018. It was a totally unnecessary move. The council has not met since shortly after the last time election were held for that body in 2006. According to PA law, parliamentary elections are to held at least every 4 years. But when rival Hamas party took 74 out of 132 seats in the council in 2006 Abbas just topped them from convening. That didn’t keep his financial arm from giving them over $95 million between 2011 and 2018. Who got that money? And for what?
While on the topic of elections it should be noted that the PA president is supposed to serve for a 4 year term with an option of being elected for one extension for another 4 years. Abbas was elected fifteen years ago, and there have been no presidential elections since then. So it appears that is no real democracy or democratic elections in the Palestinian entity, but “donors” have paid total of nearly $2 BILLION to various groups, including some designated as terrorist organizations, to preserve a facade of Palestinian democracy that really does not exist. Maybe organized crime should send observers to the PA. They might learn something.
Wetherhorn 