Sharm El-Shaikh Conference Pledges $5.2 Billion in Aid, Blackmails Palestinians for Reconstruction

ccun.org, March 4, 2009
Editor's Note:

The Israeli occupation government set its conditions to lift the siege and embargo it imposed on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas Movement won the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, in 2006. Basically, the Israelis want Hamas to agree to the Israeli theft of the Palestinian lands and the Israeli denial of Palestinian rights before the beginning of any negotiations.

The Palestinian people in Gaza have been subjected to a brutal siege and embargo by the Israeli occupation government and its terrorist forces to force Hamas to recognize the status-quo (the occupation and oppression) as legitimate. The US, EU, and major Arab states participated in the siege and the embargo, and even justified the Israeli war on Gaza on January 2009.

Now, the Israelis and their supporters in the US-EU governments are saying to the Palestinian people that they cannot get this aid pledged reconstruction unless they surrender their political and inalienable rights in advance.

This is a recipe for the continuation of the conflict, not for reconciliation and peace.

It's a further exploitation of the victims!

Shame!

Sharm conference maintains status quo despite 5.2 billion in aid

Date: 03 / 03 / 2009 Time: 15:08
Sharm Ash-Sheikh – Ma’an –

The Palestinian status quo was maintained during the Sharm El-Shaikh donor conference this week.

While 5.2 billion US dollars was raised at the conference, there was no indication that change for Palestine is on the horizon.

“The Sharm conference is a carbon copy of the Paris conference,” a senior Palestinian leader said. “It is just a special version for the Gaza Strip.”

He continued, “What the West Bank got out of Paris, Gaza will get out of Sharm; both the good and bad bits…this is political money and the politicians here know that.”

So while 75 nations pledged billions, there was no indication that equal political pressure would be applied to Israel to ensure that the money and aid would get through to Gaza.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton postponed her press conference in Egypt, but later promised through Al-Arabiya TV that she would go immediately to Tel Aviv and demand the crossings be open and settlement construction be halted. (But when she went there, she justified the brutal Israeli war on Gaza!).

Israel agreed to stop settlement construction in 2007, but its government continues to build and Clinton mentioned no new mechanism by which the United States would achieve the goal this time.

Moreover, the mechanisms by which aid was set to get through bolster the PA and rely on the neutrality of United Nations refugee assistance agency UNRWA.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa both indicated they would support the PA, which received over two billion for West Bank projects and to support its operational budget.

There was also no question that the PA plan for Gaza's reconstruction would be the one to guide the process.

Despite what appeared to be a reservation on some sides to directly fund the PA, Arab and international leaders by and large confirmed the legitimacy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose four-year term officially ended on 9 January but will continue to lead the PA until a transitional government is in place.

So while the Saudi foreign minister, for example, said the Saudi one billion US dollar donation would go to EU Commission PEGASE via the Saudi Development Fund and not directly into PA accounts, the Emirati delegation decided to transfer its aid money to the PA treasury after Abbas explained the PA’s financial crisis in a private meeting with the group.

Thus, the Western and European leaders continued to isolate Hamas, while supporting the PA, and after remaining silent throughout most of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Their efforts mirrored those of the Arab states, despite a general feeling described by many at the conference that non-Arab states were beginning to take over the issue of Palestine.

Iran Kicks off War Crimes in Gaza conference

Wednesday March 04, 2009 12:52 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Fares Iranian news agency said that the conference aims at exposing the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The conference is headed by supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and will focus on gathering financial support to rebuild Gaza.

Several officials from Islamic and other countries will be participating in the conference. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also be attending.

Iranian officials said that the Sharm El-Shaikh Conference held in Egypt was a hypocrisy “as it included countries that supported the Israeli offensive on Gaza”, and was “even held in a country [Egypt] that did not open its borders to the besieged residents on Gaza”.

The Fares agency added that the office of the Iranian General Prosecutor demanded the Interpol to issue arrest warrants against 34 senior Israeli political leaders and 114 military leaders. This includes Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak.

Iran said that the Egyptian conference is a fake play “as the leaders gathered to praise Israel and express support to its violations”.

The Iranian news paper said that Iran is not naive and did not expect a positive outcome from the Sharm El-Shaikh conference especially since the leaders gathered to talk about peace “while they do not even know what kind of peace is this, or on what basis they want to achieve it.

The paper also said that “it seems that the role of the world is to pay for construction while Israel’s official role is killing and destruction” .

“They gathered to talk about peace and human rights, but forgot to mention the ongoing Israeli violations and crimes”, the paper said, “They gathered there and expressed support to the Zionist state and to pay for Israel’s crimes”.

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