Charitable and Business Organizations Eager to Aid Palestine

By Andrea W. Lorenz

On Oct. 1, foreign and finance ministers of 46 wealthy countries met in Washington, DC and pledged $2.1 billion in aid to the fledgling Palestinian nation. As the pledges were being made, foremost on many observers' minds were two questions. After the checks have been signed, who will coordinate the flow of money? And who will receive the contracts to build Palestinian society?

The Palestinians need immediate help to pull their population away from the brink of starvation, jump-start the economy, and ensure that tangible results become apparent soon. This is the only way to extinguish the combustible mixture of unemployed Palestinian youth, armed settlers, and Israeli troops. Among those most likely to be selected by the Palestine Liberation Organization to do the job in the immediate term are private voluntary organizations (PVOs) with long-term experience in the occupied territories.

Key to the success of the PLO's plans is coordination—deciding which international PVOs will work in tandem with Palestinian charitable and non-governmental organizations and eventually with a Palestinian-run civil administration to make the most effective use of the pledged funds. Duplication of effort as well as waste and corruption are dangers if the funds are not carefully managed.

Already PLO decision-makers are beginning to tackle these problems. Just a week before the conference, the PLO Executive Committee formed an "economic management institution" called the Palestinian Emergency Development and Reconstruction Authority (PEDRA), headed by economist Yussef Sayegh. PEDRA will administer the PLO's six-year development plan, scheduled to begin in 1994. The first phase of the plan (1994-1995) will involve emergency rehabilitation. The development plan is based on a report drafted by a team of economists who have been working on it since the talks in Madrid.

Elections for a Palestinian government are scheduled for July 1994. The second phase of the plan will begin in 1996 after the government is up and running and will involve building an infrastructure and encouraging investment in the economy.

In addition, since Madrid, approximately 40 teams of experts under the direction of Dr. Sari Nusseibeh have been laying out plans for rehabilitating every sector of Palestinian society, including water, power, electricity, agriculture, security, etc. The members of these teams will form a new cadre of technocrats who will take over the civil administration, which is currently under the direction of the Israeli Defense Ministry. The civil administration manages tax collection, runs hospitals and administers public works.

In anticipation of possible new grants, many international PVOs with experience in the occupied territories hurriedly dusted off feasibility studies, needs assessments and grant proposals. Approximately 20 PVOs, 12 of which are American, are now operating in the occupied territories. Throughout the Israeli occupation, these organizations have worked quietly to provide education, technical training, medical care and financial assistance to Palestinians. They have had a profound and lasting influence on Palestinian society.

A Profound and Lasting Influence

One of the best-known agencies ready to provide assistance is the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). With 8,000 staff members in the occupied territories and 45 years of experience in assisting Palestinians, UNRWA can provide assistance immediately. At the request of secretary-general Boutros BoutrosGhali, UNRWA and the two other United Nations agencies working in the occupied territories, UNICEF and UNDP, developed a coordinated plan to improve water treatment systems, stop sewage overflow, and provide more medical clinics. Bill Lee, director of the UNRWA Liaison Of fice in New York, said it is up to the Palestinians to decide what role they want UNRWA to play. "All we need is the green light."

One of the two largest AID-funded PVOs in the West Bank and Gaza is American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA). Throughout the 25 years it has worked in the occupied territories, ANERA has helped hundreds of Palestinians increase farm production, obtain loans and start small businesses. All but one of its staff members in the field are Palestinian. Palestinian women have learned vocational skills such as sewing, knitting and canning through ANERA programs such as the Women's Cooperative for Sewing and Handicrafts. ANERA's revolving loan funds have made it possible for Palestinian women to buy equipment they can use to set up businesses in their homes. Farmers have taken advantage of ANERA's mobile veterinary clinic, enabling them to increase their profits significantly. In addition, nearly 3,000 Gaza fishermen belong to the Tawfiq Fishermen's Cooperative, which runs an ice factory and provides low-cost gasoline and fishing equipment. For the most destitute Palestinians, such as the residents of Dheisheh refugee camp. ANERA provides job training and welfare services. ANERA, too, has rehabilitation projects ready and waiting for funding.

"All we need is the green light."

While ANERA and UNRWA have aided poorer sectors of Palestinian society, America Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) has provided training for 3,700 individuals—a third of them women—many of whom make up the new nation's educated elite. An annual average of 1,500 Palestinians from 395 Palestinian institutions have participated in AMIDEAST's $34 million AID-funded Human Resource Development Project. Palestinians are educated either in the U.S. or at Palestinian or other Arab universities. Men and women trained through AMIDEAST programs now constitute more than 60 percent of the faculty teaching in Palestinian post-secondary institutions. In addition, many of the Palestinians appointed to the technical committees established at the start of the peace process were trained through AMIDEAST programs.

One of AMIDEAST's goals is to help end the semi-isolation in which Palestinian educators have labored during the Israeli occupation. Prohibited from traveling, they were unable to attend professional conferences. In addition, Israeli censorship limited their access to information. To facilitate university-to-university communication, AMIDEAST has proposed a "Get Palestine on Line" program through establishing Internet services in the universities.

One of the most innovative PVOs working in the occupied territories is a Canadian group, Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP Canada). Since its establishment in 1983, MAP has concentrated almost exclusively on providing emergency medical services. According to Executive Director Hossam Sharkawi, MAP was the first Canadian PVO to set up an office in Jerusalem. MAP began work without notifying the Israeli authorities "as a matter of principle," he said. "We just rented a space and started to work."

In 1989, MAP established the first intensive care unit in Gaza. Its personnel have also been instrumental in helping to develop a Palestinian national health plan. One of MAP's major projects is installation of a centralized ambulance dispatch system. Until now, no such system has existed in the territories because the Israelis forbid Palestinian ambulances from using VHF radios. In addition, without a centralized health plan, Sharkawi said, it was difficult to get hospital administrators to agree on a particular system.

PVOs and local Palestinian charitable groups will play a significant role in the first phase of the Palestinians' development plan, but the challenge for the second phase is to encourage private investment. Like 64 other countries, the Palestinians now have an American-affiliated chamber of commerce. At the end of September, Jewish- and Arab-American business leaders held the first meeting of the White House task force established to encourage business investment in Palestine. Among those participating was Fuad Sahuri, president of the Palestinian American Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Sahuri founded the 75-member chamber two years ago and incorporated it in Jerusalem in anticipation of a breakthrough in the peace negotiations. The chamber officially opened its doors on Sept. 16. Its mandate is to promote good economic and social relations with the new Palestinian state, to present Palestinian views on policy and regulatory matters to American business groups, and to promote business contacts through networking. Sahuri said there now are only about 20 companies employing more than 100 individuals each in operation in the occupied territories. "We are looking to encourage U.S. companies to move to Jericho and Gaza," he said. He added, "We are even talking of building a Hyatt Regency in Jericho and a Marriott in Gaza."

The National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA), whose business it is to lobby Congress, has done a brilliant job of convincing Congress to remove the initial impediments to American investment in Palestine. Headed by Khalil Jahshan, NAAA worked with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to formulate the Middle East Peace Facilitation Act of 1993 (SB 1487). The bill removes restrictions on American citizens in four important areas: contact with the PLO, travel restrictions, prohibitions on opening offices and transferring funds to Palestinian institutions, and laws that prevented the U.S. from participating in certain World Bank and International Monetary Fund projects for the Palestinians. In addition, NAAA has worked closely with the American Jewish Congress and Friends of Peace Now to encourage Arab-American and Jewish-American businesspeople to cooperate on joint investment plans.

In one of the boldest gestures yet, a wealthy Jewish businessman who has supported the peace process since its inception has donated $100,000 to establish a revolving loan fund to help establish Palestinian businesses. He has challenged other Jewish- and Arab-American businessmen to match his grant to reach an immediate goal of five million dollars. With creative individuals like this, and experienced organizations ready to push the peace process forward, the Palestinians need only to coordinate their efforts to get their economy up and running.

Andrea W. Lorenz, a former features editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, is now based in Calgary, Alberta.