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EU Aid to Palestine Is Funding the Conflict

[Telegraph -- UK] Daniel Hannan - The EU is to increase its aid to the Palestinian Authority by ?40 million, in order to pay the salaries of government employees. The EU's generosity with our money - it has paid the Palestinian Authority ?256 million so far this year - creates two problems. First, the PA in Gaza is run by Hamas, which is on the EU's list of designated terrorist operations. Under Brussels rules, funding such an organization is a criminal offence. Euro-lawyers have sought to circumvent the letter of the law by funneling aid money through NGOs, but this is sheer sophistry. Second, it is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected. The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation. Palestinians are a naturally enterprising people who, in other Arab states, often form the professional and administrative class. A capitalist Palestine, in which citizens looked to themselves rather than to the state, would be more stable. Its propertied classes would have a stake in civil order. Its businessmen would have an incentive to remain on cordial terms with their customers, including those in Israel. None of this will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in the squalor of dependency. The author is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament.
2008-08-25 08:00:00
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