World Bank urges donors to fulfill Gaza pledges

[HAIDER]

After Israel's war against Gaza militants in 2014, Arab countries led the way in pledging reconstruction aid to the devastated seaside enclave. But a new report released Monday by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of what was promised.

The World Bank released its report a day before a gathering of international donor countries in Brussels, sending the meeting a stark message that donations are well behind the schedule set when pledges were made at an international conference in October 2014.

Related: Donors pledge aid for Gaza, call for peace talks

"Actual disbursements fall short of planned disbursements by around $1.3 billion, and hence, donors are urged to accelerate the disbursement of funds," the report said. If donor funding continues at the current pace, it added, pledges are expected to be complete by mid-2019, some two years behind schedule.

Israel launched the war in July 2014 in what it said was a campaign to halt heavy rocket fire from the territory, which is ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. During 50 days of fighting, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, over half of them civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian estimates. Seventy-three people, including six civilians, were killed on the Israeli side.

The fighting also inflicted heavy damage on Gaza, damaging or destroying some 171,000 homes, according to U.N. figures. The Palestinians say 75,000 people remain homeless. Israel says Hamas is responsible for the damage, noting the group used residential neighborhoods for cover as it fired rockets, triggering Israeli retaliation.

At the 2014 conference in Cairo, the international community pledged some $3.51 billion in aid over three years to rebuild Gaza. According to Monday's report, as of the end of March, $1.41 billion has been delivered, compared to $2.71 billion that should have arrived based on the original schedule.

Qatar led the list of donors in 2014, pledging $1 billion. The energy-rich country's foreign minister at the time, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, denounced the "international silence" that surrounded Gaza's destruction.

"While the Palestinian people need financial support, they need more political support from the international community," he said at the time.

Yet a year and half later, Qatar has delivered only $152 million, or 15 percent of what was promised, according to the World Bank.

Related: 'If you forget Gaza...'

Saudi Arabia, the No. 2 donor, has delivered just over 10 percent of the $500 million it pledged, while the United Arab Emirates has sent just 15 percent of the $200 million it promised and Kuwait has delivered none of the $200 million it pledged. Turkey, one of Hamas' closest allies, has delivered about one-third of the $200 million it pledged.

Officials from Turkey and the Gulf Arab countries were not immediately available for comment.

In contrast, the United States has delivered all of the $277 million it pledged, while the European Union has sent nearly three-quarters of the $348 million it promised, according to the figures. Individual European nations, including Norway, Switzerland, Germany and the U.K. have all sent most or all of the aid they pledged.

The international aid is meant to pass through the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, bypassing Hamas. Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged donor countries to "make good on their pledges" they made at the Cairo Conference. For years, the Palestinians, who rely heavily on donor aid to prop up their self-rule government, have complained that Arab allies have been slow in delivering promised assistance.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri urged donors to fulfill their pledges, warning that ongoing harsh conditions in Gaza could lead to renewed violence.

"Unfortunately, there are broken promises and betrayal from the donor parties in the reconstruction file," he said. "We call on all parties to honor their pledges because the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and it constitutes a real case of suffocation and prepares the atmosphere for the return of the explosion."

Donor aid is just one component of rescuing the embattled Palestinian economy, and in its report, the World Bank also took aim at Israel.

Monday's report said the Palestinian Authority is losing about $285 million each year under existing economic agreements with Israel. In interim peace deals in the 1990s, Israel agreed to collect taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and transfer the money each month.

Related: The true Gaza story that Israelis are hiding

The World Bank said some of the arrangements have become outdated, while others have not been fully implemented due to "tax leakages" on trade with Israel and undervaluing Palestinian imports from other countries. It said the losses amount to 2.2 percent of Palestinian economic activity.

The report also said that Israel is holding some $669 million in revenues owed to the Palestinians, mostly pension contributions collected from Palestinians working in Israel and their employers. It said the Palestinian Authority has not yet created a dedicated pension fund for these workers, holding up the money.

It said that an Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized power in 2007, "continues to weigh on the economy." It also said that Egypt's closure of its border crossing with Gaza, the main gateway for people moving in and out of the territory, has "further exacerbated the situation."
http://www.dawn.com/news/1252867/world-bank-urges-donors-to-fulfill-gaza-pledges

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

What is the point ......pledge ......then ...bomb with F16 .....show a cartoon in UN ...bomb again , pledge..then shoot point blank ....pledge again for money ....then support Israel ...pledge and then ...yadah yadh .....

Either make 2 countries or don't ask for pledge

Constructing civilian structures and then letting it get Bombed is grave war crime in my opinion

Oh wait its going to UN , lets all be politically correct , use the "v" power

And after few months ...lets all send money to help poor again so they can build a small home think their lives are normally and then bomb it again from F16

Two countries how hard is it to make 2 governments and 2 countries

Pledge = We will make 2 countries in that region and no fly zone over the weaker country and provide Airforce for it, that is called a pledge

 

[Maravan]

Injuries won't heal with sympathy,
Crops won't grow with showers,
Freedom won't come with mercy.

Palestinians should have understood now that the muslim/arab world is the biggest hypocrites who are good for nothing other than whining with sugar coated words. Just to project themselves big before their public, leaders like nassers made the Palestinians scapegoats, which fool will wait for weeks to go offensive after closing the straits of Tiran? If their real intention was to free palestine. No one can get your freedom, only you have to won your freedom through Revolution.

It's better to die with freedom, than living a 100years as slave -B.R. Ambedkar
It's even better to die fighting for that freedom -Prabhakaran.

 

[Solomon2]

From the report:

Out of the USD3.5 billion
pledged at the Cairo conference for Gaza reconstruction, USD1.4 billion has so far been disbursed,
which puts the disbursement ratio at 40 percent. Since the September 2015 AHLC report, disbursements
have increased by USD179 million: USD159 million in additional disbursements and USD20 million
as a result of updating figures. Funds already disbursed are USD1.3 billion less than originally planned
mainly because payments by some of the largest donors remain lower than anticipated. At the current
pace, pledges will fully materialize by mid-2019; almost two years behind schedule. As donor pledges
materialize and as larger recovery projects start to advance, the import mechanism will need to be
adjusted to enable the entrance of the required materials and accelerate approval procedures, while
taking into account legitimate Israeli security concerns. Despite recent progress, construction material
imported into Gaza continues to be lower than needed. At the current import rate, it will take about two
years to import materials needed to rebuild and repair all housing units impacted by the war. As a result
of lower than needed funding and construction materials, only 9 percent of totally damaged houses and
45 percent of partially damaged houses have so far been rebuilt, and 14,800 families continue to be
displaced.


From StrategyPage:

...In Gaza foreign aid groups complain that despite the arrival of over a billion dollars in aid very few homes destroyed during the 2014 50 Day War have been rebuilt. What the foreign aid groups don’t mention (to avoid getting chased out of Gaza by Hamas) is that reconstruction of military facilities has taken precedence, including building new tunnels into Egypt (mainly for smuggling) and Israel (exclusively for terrorism). Only 40 percent of the pledged (mainly by Arab oil states) aid has arrived so far in part because the donors note Hamas is embarrassing the donors by not using the money for what is was intended to do (aid the Gazans who lost their homes in the 2014 war). Diversion of foreign aid (and income in general) has long been a major problem with Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza. This corruption is the main reason Palestinian governments are so unpopular with the people they represent.