October 17, 2013

The Unsurprising Corruption of Palestinian Authorities

By Michael Curtis
Recent publications in the international mainstream media of reckless and dishonest management by Palestinian authorities of their economic affairs and their scandalized response to it recall the eye-opening surprise of the corrupt chief of police in the film Casablanca who was "shocked" to find that gambling was going on in the room that he frequented. The media, print and television, suddenly revealed what even journalists of the New York Times must surely have known for years: that the Palestinian authorities are corrupt and inefficient, and that large sums of money given to them and their leaders are missing. The immediate reason for the disclosure stems from the leaking of the main contents of a report soon to be publicly released by the European Court of Auditors. This body was established in 1975 by the European Union to monitor the income and spending of money given by it in foreign aid. The new 2013 report of the Court reveals that $2.7 billion in direct aid to the...(Read Full Article)