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Dear Sir,
While everyone's attention is focused elsewhere, Ha'aretz allows
Amira Hass to smear Israel by repeating Palestinian propaganda as
fact. [Judge frees NIS 130m in PA funds, Nov 11, 2004]
Hass baldly states as fact that attachment of funds by Israeli
courts that are hearing several lawsuits claiming damages against
the PA "are largely responsible for a severe budget crisis in the
PA."
With headlines about Arafat's hidden billions plastered over every
newspaper and website around the world, how can Hass have the
temerity to blame Israel for financial crisis in the PA?
Any financial crisis in the PA is caused by historical and ongoing
corruption and theft by the PA elite. Additionally, huge sums have
been diverted to terror. This corruption, theft and terror has led
to what the World Bank describes as the largest per capita foreign
aid in mankind's history leaving the average Palestinian trying to
manage on a mere $2 a day. It was former Palestinian Legislative
Council speaker Rafiq Al-Natshe who said that the PA does not need
foreign aid, as there are billions of dollars in the possession of
the Authority, ‘but no one knows anything about the funds.’
Arafat was not the only one involved, and unless the international
community insists on proper, audited controls, his successors (with
Hass' assistance) will continue to cry poor and pick the foreign
taxpayers' pockets.
D.F.
Ra'anana
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