an interview with Sameer Abu Aisheh

bitterlemons: How are you feeling international sanctions at the moment?

Abu Aisheh: International aid comes in two broad categories: budgetary support and developmental projects. Cutting aid for either of these will have a very negative impact on the situation.

Budgetary support goes mainly to the service sector ministries, which consume most of the budget. These are the ministries related to health care, education, social services and the social safety net in general, as well as programs associated with services, specifically poverty alleviation programs.

The developmental projects are also mostly related to services, and include clinics and basic needs such as water and sanitation. Some 60 to 70 percent of the population is not connected to the sewage system. People's basic needs will not be met if these projects are stopped. This also goes for education. Every year we should build tens of schools.

bitterlemons: And if these needs are neglected?

Abu Aisheh: If these developmental needs, closely associated with basic needs, are not met, it will have a very negative effect on the system and will cause a collapse.

This benefits neither Palestinians nor the Israelis, and it is not in the interests of the international community. In addition, I don't think the Arab world will accept seeing Palestinians failing to receive their basic services and needs or to live a dignified life like any other nation.

We are under occupation and there is an international responsibility to help us, because we are not free to develop ourselves, to invest, or to raise funds from anywhere. No investor will consider coming here to finance projects under occupation.

bitterlemons: The EU and US are adamant that they will cut off funding and have already done so, but you seem confident they will step back in. At what stage will that happen?

Abu Aisheh: I think if after three or four months they see things are moving on the ground, they will come back and start assisting the Palestinian government.

At the moment, they are looking at specific humanitarian needs to be channeled through NGOs. But we are not in need of food. We need the system, we need to pay the salaries, and we need to provide services. The government provides most basic services. For example, the government provides 96-97 percent of Palestinian educational services, outside UNRWA schools. The government provides 60-65 percent of the healthcare system.

It's very important to engage and cooperate with a Palestinian government, selected through a democratic process, to ensure that these services continue.

bitterlemons: You say the international community will step in if it sees things moving on the ground. Can things move on the ground in the meantime?

Abu Aisheh: We are working in the hope that they will. We have promises that Arab and Islamic countries and funds will assist us. We are also urging the private sector and banks, like the Islamic banks and Arab banks, to assist us, not only as aid but also through loans. We need these loans to run the system and pay salaries. Otherwise, as I say, the system will collapse. No one is happy to see that.

bitterlemons: What do you think of the current international approach?

Abu Aisheh: It is disastrous. This is not the way the West should deal with the Palestinian case. They are pushing to get specific positions from the Palestinian government that we are not able to provide. We should not have to submit to the occupying power. We are the victims, and we want to live in security and peace but without this price.

We are willing to run our system within the 1967 borders. If the Israelis accept our right to have such a state and say it clearly, then we can discuss what the next step is.

But we cannot only give positions and condemn this and accept that and recognize Israel when, at the same time, we saw what happened under the late President Yasser Arafat and what is happening now with Mahmoud Abbas. No specific actions on the ground have been made by Israel. There is an endless list of things Israel requires us to do without reciprocation and this is not the way we operate.

bitterlemons: What would you like the international community to be doing?

Abu Aisheh: It should cooperate with the elected Palestinian government. It should support the democracy it always talks about. The EU, Canada and the US not only vocally supported the elections, they did so financially, and their current position is a double standard. When the Kadima party won the Israeli elections, the international community recognized its right to form a government and congratulated its leader. Why should we be different?

The West is always talking about building bridges between east and west, between Arabs and Muslims and the West, but it is acting directly against this publicly stated stand. The international community should move forward and tell Israel that Palestinians have the right to elect whomever they want.

We have provided what we feel is a very realistic program, and the international community has rejected it without even reading the English translation. They turned us away even though we approached them and said we are very willing to speak to the Quartet and see what we can do to push the peace process forward.

There should now be an approach from them to us to tell us, "let's talk and see how we can resolve this problem". Then we can present our case and discuss how to go from here.

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- Published 10/4/2006 - bitterlemons.org.

Sameer Abu Aisheh is the Palestinian Authority minister of planning.