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Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22339/pouring-billions-into-gaza
Trump's "Board of Peace" Needs to Ask a Few Hard Questions before Pouring Billions into Gaza
(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - As President Trump and members of his "Board of Peace" pledged billions of dollars for relief and reconstruction in Gaza, recent public opinion polls show that most Palestinians are still concerned about widespread corruption in Palestinian society. The Palestinians are loudly warning international donors that Palestinian leaders are not trustworthy in handling money. The Palestinian Authority is expected to play a significant role in the future management of Gaza. Recently, Nickolay Mladenov, director-general of the "Board of Peace," announced the establishment of a "Liaison Office" with the PA. The newly established National Committee for the Administration of Gaza is dominated by officials affiliated with the PA and its ruling Fatah faction. For the past 33 years, the international community has failed to track the flow and use of aid money donated to the Palestinians, enabling high-level corruption. Tens of billions of dollars in international aid given to the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas regime in Gaza have been lost to corruption, siphoned off by terror groups or mismanaged by the PA leadership. Corruption, mismanagement and diversion have repeatedly played a major role in preventing aid from reaching ordinary Palestinians. Gaza has become the only place in the world where a terror group can repeatedly wage war - funded by the international community. For decades, Gaza has been one of the most heavily funded territories in the world in terms of international aid per capita. Yet despite the enormous financial injections, Gaza remains impoverished, unstable, and dominated by Hamas and other terrorist groups. While donors thought they were funding hospitals and schools, Hamas was appropriating and investing enormous resources in weapons, military infrastructure, and preparation for the next confrontation with Israel. The assumption that writing big checks will somehow produce different results has collapsed.