THE MONEY- - 12-Jul-94

(Article by Sever Plotzker, 'Yediot Ahronot', July 12, 1994, p.B3)

Mohammad Nashashibi (60), a senior political-economic advisor to Yasser Arafat, was appointed Finance Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Since the appointment and his arrival in the territories, he has narrowed the scope of activities of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDR) whose job it is to coordinate foreign aid to the Autonomy. He has also made numerous declarations that should be of grave concern to the Palestinian economic and business communities.

Last week, Nashashibi was interviewed by 'Financial Times' correspondent Julian Ozanne; these are the pearls I extracted from the interview:

* The World Bank and those doing its bidding, the representatives of the donor countries, 'want to prevent the palestinian political leadership from performing its leading role in building and developing the palestinian economy.' These institutions 'prefer to talk with professionals, Palestinian technocrats, without the political sponsorship of the PLO leadership.' According to Nashashibi, this is unimaginable audacity.

* The donor countries will never succeed in imposing their socio-economic preferences on the Palestinians. Let them not give us a headache about supervisory demands 'Our system is already open and transparent. Now, our people in Gaza must see the money, the implementation of the projects, and not just meetings in Paris and Washington. Why are the donor countries waiting? Where is the money?'

* The economic agreement signed, two months ago in Paris, between Israel and the PLO means the servitude of the Palestinian economy to Israeli interests and, accordingly, the PLO must re-open the agreement for discussion. And immediate revision. 'The Israelis must understand that they cannot continue to subjugate our economic future. They are threatening that, if we violate the agreement, they will close the border? Let them close the border. I am prepared to live with closed borders. We must protect our industry against them.'

Mohammad Nashashibi is mistaken and infuriating.

The economic agreement between Israel and the PLO is the best that the Palestinian administration could have received from Israel. It contains real and important Israeli concessions. It even surprised positively Palestinian economists working for international economic institutions. The Palestinian economy will only profit and prosper from open borders with Israel. Nashashibi cannot live with closed borders. Laborers from the territories will be unemployed; there will be no market for agricultural and construction workers from the territories; vital imports will not reach factories, etc.

Nashashibi is not punishing us; he is only punishing the Palestinian people. He is also punishing the Palestinian people with regard to foreign aid. It is not every day that a new national administration is fortunate enough to receive a commitment from the 'rich world' of $2.8 billion in aid as the Palestinians have received. Romania, for example, is yet to receive even one-quarter of this amount. But no donor country will 'blindly' contribute the money of its tax-payers, and it will certainly not contribute funds to an exiled political organization which, only yesterday, was a terrorist group. The aid will only be given for development projects to be jointly determined, or as funding for expenses incurred in the original formation of the Palestinian administration after having been examined by World Bank experts with a magnifying glass. That's how the donor countries work, and they will not work differently with the Palestinians just because Nashashibi has demanded it.

The international aid funds have not yet reached Gaza and Jericho for political reasons alone but not the imperialist politics of the donor countries and of the United States, contrary to Nashashibi's accusations. The dark, internal politics of PLO elements is responsible for this. And particularly people of Nashashibi's kind. They are the ones who 'tripped up' PECDR, and now want to destroy it. They are the ones who objected to the regulations, control and observation. And they are the ones who fought to create private funds through which money, contracts and tenders could be channeled without a need for international reporting, but with fat commissions.

The Palestinian self-administration is lucky to have scores and hundreds of excellent Palestinian economists and businessmen at its disposal, in the territories and abroad. Technocrats, as Mohammad Nashashibi calls them with disdain. They are prepared and want to assist the Palestinian National Authority, and they have the trust of the donor countries.

One of them, Dr. Samir Abdallah, said yesterday: 'Whoever thinks that the old PLO apparatus can manage the economic tasks of the self-administration, is making a terrible mistake.' Dr. Abdallah is an economics professor and one of the heads of PECDR. He is not loved by the wheeler-dealers.