 Mahmoud Abbas |
JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority has concocted a scheme to fool international donors who pledged $7.4 billion at a funding conference yesterday into believing the PA is carrying out required security reforms, according to security sources and information obtained by WND.
International donors pledged the massive sum yesterday at a conference in Paris to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas following last month’s U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit. At the peace talks, Israel committed to aim at concluding negotiations leading to a Palestinian state by the end of next year.
Some of the biggest donors announced their pledges at the start of yesterday’s conference, attended by more than 60 countries.
The European Union said it would give $630 million to the PA next year, and Norway pledged $140 million a year for three years. Britain, France and Germany announced a combined $1.08 billion over three years.
The U.S. announced it is pledging about $555 million for 2008, including about $400 million in aid to Abbas that the White House asked Congress to approve last month.
The pledged money beat out PA expectations; Abbas’ earlier announced he wanted to raise $5.6 billion.
Participants at yesterday’s conference, including Israeli Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni, called on all states to urgently contribute, stating the aid will help facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
“Israel is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” said Livni.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now a Mideast envoy for the Quartet, told the gathered world leaders, “We will not rest until we have that two-state solution a reality in this region of the world.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the international community to contribute funds and “work together before the end of 2008 for the creation of an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state.”
“Be generous, be audacious. Peace depends on it, and this peace will help all the world,” Sarkozy said.
A statement from the European Union stated a large portion of international aid pledged in Paris yesterday was specifically conditioned to fund Abbas’ implementation of a Palestinian Reform and Development Plan. The plan was presented at the conference at the request of the international community by Palestinian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad. Funds are slated to be deposited directly into an account controlled by Fayyad.
One of the main sections of the Palestinian Reform plan calls for PA security forces to be unified under one command instead of functioning as a series of militias and for the PA to trim is overall forces on the payroll by 30,000 gunmen.
Livni, in her speech yesterday, praised the Reform Plan.
“We welcome the Palestinian reform plan as a serious effort to build the basis for a responsible Palestinian state that the Palestinian people so deserve and that peace so needs,” Livni said.
But according to security and political sources speaking to WND, the PA has put into place a series of moves designed to make it appear it is trimming its security forces. In some cases, it actually is enlarging militias, contrary to commitments to donors.
According to Palestinian political sources, Fayyad is under heavy pressure from the Executive Committee of Abbas’ Fatah organization to expand the PA forces and to incorporate into paid militias more members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s declared military wing which is listed by the State Department as a terror group.
The Brigades took responsibility along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide in Israel the past three years and for thousands of shootings and rocket attacks. Many members of the Brigades openly serve as leaders of various PA security forces.
Security sources told WND that among the moves the PA will make is to remove from its payroll about 20,000 security force members over the age of 57 who were required to retire at the age of 60. Also, about 2,000 gunmen under investigation for collaborating with rival Hamas will be fired.
The sources said the PA will then transfer about 10,000 gunmen to the payroll of other Palestinian ministries, including the PA ministry for woman, ministry for prisoners and ministry against the Israel wall. The estimated 10,000 gunmen will remain in the PA security forces but will simply collect a paycheck from a different ministry instead of the internal security ministry.
Meanwhile, the PA is planning to expand its security forces by hiring about 15,000 more Palestinian gunmen, including thousands of members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, according to security sources.
The sources said, for example, one Brigades leader in the Anskar refugee camp in the northern West Bank received a written document last week from the Palestinian National Guard stating the PA’s intentions to hire the Brigades leader and 13 other members of his cell as members of the security forces.
The hiring of the Brigades leader and his cell is slated to take place after Abbas and Fayyad return from Paris, the sources said.
To interview Aaron Klein, contact Tim Bueler Public Relations by e-mail, or call (530) 401-3285.
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