Christian Peacemakers Told Palestinian Authority “Skimming Our Taxes for Personal Gain”

By Julie Hart

After a year’s absence, members of a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron sat down to visit with an old Palestinian friend, “Mahmoud.” A professor at a local university, he shared his intense disillusionment with the realities of life under Israeli occupation and now under the Palestinian Authority (PA). “They have just changed uniforms,” he explained. “Now the PA are also our oppressors.”

As has happened in the past, professors have not received pay for the past three months. The PA reports that there is no money. Yet until recently the PA has forbidden the staff and faculty to raise their own funds from abroad. Since lifting this ban, the university has raised sufficient funds to cover salaries, but only with strings attached. They must first turn over 30 percent of the donations to the PA. Then the PA further docks their share by using an old exchange rate, essentially cutting the college’s much-needed funding by an additional 25 percent.

The professor explained that the Palestinian Authority consists of Arafat’s old friends, not local people with local concerns and ties. “They are skimming millions of our taxes for personal gain. We see this in their expensive cars and lifestyles. All at the expense of the Palestinian people.” For example, Hebron public schoolteachers went on strike this spring to protest low wages. They were making the equivalent of $250 per month teaching in classrooms of up to 50 students.

While he remains committed to his land and the struggle for Palestinian rights, “Mahmoud” wonders how he will pay to educate his children. The family continues to sell ancestral land to meet expenses, and yet for some of the land close to settlements, there are only Jewish buyers. “Mahmoud” cannot sell to Jews, because to Palestinians it is ethically unacceptable to sell to those who are confiscating Palestinian land. “Mahmoud” recalls feeling each year that it can’t get any worse. And yet to finally have Palestinian representation that is hurting the people as much as the occupation creates a sense of hopelessness.

Another friend, “Said,” a human rights worker and activist, shares this sense of profound frustration with the PA. While applying for a radio license, he says he has experienced nothing but a run around and inefficiency. After rescheduling appointments four times and waiting 40 minutes to get in, the person in charge insisted that he complete forms that don’t concern his situation. When he confronted PA officials with his frustrations, they asked him to do the best he can with the forms, seemingly unable to comprehend the problem.

Then, this week “Said” reported that the PA is attempting to curtail political activities of Palestinian human rights organizations such as the one with which he works. These groups research and publicize human rights abuses committed by Israeli police, the Israeli military and the PA.

The PA justice minister claimed in a June 13 news article appearing in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: “[these organizations] are doing political work that does not serve the Palestinian people…The money these institutions receive (from abroad) is earmarked for the Palestinian people, and we can’t allow a small group of people to spend millions of dollars without supervision.”

“Said” is alarmed. “They don’t appreciate what we say about them. They want us to say nothing about their torture and interrogation techniques.” At the same time that they work to silence the human rights organizations, “there are people working for the PA who do nothing.”

What do we do when our own representatives do not represent our best interests? “Mahmoud” and “Said” agree in their answer to the question, “Can it get any worse?” It has been difficult living under Israeli occupation, but it becomes hopeless when their own people, their own brothers, those finally able to represent their own interests, do no better.

Julie Hart is a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, which has maintained a violence reduction presence there since June 1995 at the invitation of the Hebron Municipality. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an initiative among Mennonite and Brethren congregations, and Friends meetings who support violence reduction Teams around the world. Contact CPTat P.O. Box 6508 Chicago, IL 60680 USA; Tel: (312) 455-1199; fax: (312) 666-2677; e-mail: CPT@igc.org To join CPTNET send an e-mail to admin@MennoLink.org and the message Group: menno.org.cpt.news. Visit us on the WEB: http://www.prairienet.org/cpt