The 'Palestinian' Agency?
'Palestinians' living in 23 countries got together in an opulent convention center in Bethlehem for the founding conference of the 'Palestine Network.' The 'Palestine Network' is meant to be a 'Palestinian' version of the Jewish Agency. But unlike the Jewish Agency, which was entirely self-financed, the 'Palestine Network's founding conference was funded by the governments of Germany and Belgium. The Palestine Network is not just another charity or source of funding. The Palestinians have many economic backers. In 2008, global financial aid to the Palestinian Authority exceeded $2 billion, including about $526 million from Arab countries, $651m. from the European Union, $300m. from the US and about $238m. from the World Bank, according to the Arab League’s 2009 economic report.
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The network’s goal is to use expertise from Palestine’s diaspora communities to develop the local economy, judiciary, education and health infrastructures in what will be the future state.
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Nabil Shaath, a minister in the Palestinian Authority and former peace negotiator, says that the amount of money that is expected to come from the Palestine Network “is not going to be significant.”
“But their involvement with their country, their commitment, their networking is going to be an element of strength for the people inside as much as satisfaction for the people outside,” the minister adds.
“I understand that the many people who emigrated are willing to really come back, either permanently or to make businesses and go back again, which is fine with us,” Shaath concludes.
The Palestinian Network is setting up clubs across the world, several each in major cities like London and Chicago. The first club will symbolically be in Jerusalem, headed by Theodosios Attallah Hanna, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia.
Notably absent were Palestinians from Arab states, where an estimated 1.2 million live. Khoury says that club formation there was contingent on Arab governments’ approval, which they hope will come later. Clubs will also be opened in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as inside Israeli Arab communities. Non-Palestinian supporters were also welcomed.
The Palestinian community in exile condemns the efforts by the Ramallah-based illegitimate Palestinian Authority (PA) to divide, co-opt and control us through the creation of “clubs” in our midst to build legitimacy for a future settlement with Israel that betrays fundamental Palestinian rights, in particular the right of return.
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Officials in the PA contacted several Palestinian activists in Europe, North America and South America inviting them to the “Palestine Network Founding Conference” in Bethlehem for late February 2010. The Palestinian Authority claims that the initiative is a response to “grassroots” demands, hiding the fact that international participants were handpicked according to their political orientation in a secretive process controlled by senior officials in the office of Mahmoud Abbas, first and foremost Rafiq Al-Hussaini, the “Head of the Palestine Network Taskforce”.
The Palestine Network comes at a time when the Palestinian Authority faces a legitimacy crisis. There has been an upsurge of global activism outside the control of the Palestinian Authority. US-trained security forces are cracking down on internal dissent. The Palestine Network aims to build a constituency that will act as the “Palestinian voice” in order to lend legitimacy to these unpopular policies.
The undersigned individuals and organizations pledge to boycott and resist the Palestine Network and reaffirm the integrity of the inalienable rights of Palestinians, first and foremost the Right of Return.
Hmmm.
Israel Matzav: The 'Palestinian' Agency?
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