AMAN Annual Palestine Corruption Report 2012

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May 24, 2013 Palestine
[AMAN logo. Image from aman-palestine.org] [AMAN logo. Image from aman-palestine.org]

AMAN Annual Palestine Corruption Report 2012

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following report was issued by AMAN in April 2013.] 

Annual Palestine Corruption Report 2012

Introduction 

Preparation of the annual corruption report of 2012 demonstrates the commitment of the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability – AMAN to continue its pursuit of corruption and the prosecution of the corrupt. At the same time, AMAN is fully aware of the roles played by official and private parties, led by civil society organizations (CSOs), in developing a corruptionfree society where justice and equality prevail. AMAN’s conviction stems from its firm belief in continuing the strife for ingraining the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability in the Palestinian society.

The year 2012 was a very significant year for the Palestinians due to the success of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in elevating the status of Palestine to “observer state” in the United Nations. This grants the Palestinian people the right to sign international agreements, most important of which is the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

However, in spite of the constant meetings between the leaderships of Fatah and Hamas, no practical results to end the rift resulted. Furthermore, in 2012, ruling authorities in the West Bank and Gaza remained in breach of human rights laws; arbitrary arrests, refusal to execute court rulings, and restrictions on public freedoms, mainly freedom of speech, and the right of assembly and association. On the other hand, 2012 was significantly marked with the trial of a number of officials in the corruption court, and with the Anti-Corruption Commission launching its investigations of officials suspected of accused of corruption during the administration of the late President Yasser Arafat.

2012, also witnessed the Israeli occupation’s assault on the Gaza Strip in November. The assault lasted for eight days, during which rockets were fired upon Israeli cities in retaliation. This brought on a transformation in Israel’s “deterrence” policy, and resulted in a cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Hamas Movement in Gaza. At the same time, the Israeli occupation authority persisted with policies and actions that undermine the prospects for establishing a Palestinian state. In addition to the suffocating siege imposed on Gaza and the constant incursions on cities and towns in the West Bank, Israel has also persisted in land expropriation, expansion of settlements, construction of the annexation wall, and expansions at the expense of 1967 Palestinian lands. It also withheld the transfer of cleared tax funds belonging to the Palestinian Authority, which impeded the PA’s ability to provide services for its citizens, most detrimental of which is its incapacity to disburse salaries to its employees.

Finally, 2012 was the year in which AMAN trained all security cadres on issues of integrity and combating corruption. 

This report monitors and highlights the positive and negative transformations that have occurred on the state of corruption in various Palestinian sectors of the Palestinian society in the oPt, as viewed by AMAN in its capacity as the Palestinian national chapter for Transparency International, that has taken upon itself the task of preparing the annual report on corruption in Palestine. The report discloses all actions and measures taken by some public departments and divisions that provide services to citizens or manage issues of public affairs in accordance with the law. In addition, the report scrutinizes through AMAN’s perspective the conditions, reality and effectiveness of official monitoring institutions as well as the environment of transparency and integrity in the various public, civil and private sectors. In addition, certain parts of the report do reflect citizens’ impressions towards some areas related to corruption.

This report also intends to assist decision-makers, politicians, and civil society organizations in grasping the reality of corruption during the span of one year. In that respect, AMAN employs the findings to assist in its effort  pressure for change and reform. It is constantly working towards development of a national policy to combat corruption within political factions, civil society leaders and with heads of the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive powers,  which in turn will translate into developing legislations, policies, procedures and measures to combat corruption. At the same time, AMAN is raising Palestinian awareness of the perils of various forms of corruption such as nepotism, favoritism, exploitation of public office, and misappropriation of public funds. It also strives to strengthen the role of independent media in overseeing the management of public affairs and their part in spreading the culture of transparency in private, public and civil society sectors.

Methodology

The methodology involves relating and analyzing the changes that have transpired in the various forms of corruption during the past year. It relies on the index for measurement of integrity, transparency and accountability in administering public affairs, which AMAN had prepared.

The relevant data and information were collected through:

  • Objective data: the data was collected based on facts verified by various forms of reliable documentation or through specific practical experiences, which included:
    • Experiences of persons in positions of responsibility: this process involved the extraction of data and information collected through individuals in highlevel positions in order to gather accurate information directly from the source.
    • Registries of public and private institutions: this process involved scrutinizing the changes in legislation, laws, general policies and decisions, in addition to the careful review of records and data on administrative and occupational performance as well as financial records.
  • Data and information based on results of a public opinion poll: this involved the analysis of data collected in an opinion poll conducted in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem, which pinpointed the Palestinian public perception of corruption. These included:
    • General public perception, which reflected the citizens’ general perspective on corruption and its nature in Palestinian society, where they perceive it to prevail, and how it affects public interest.
    • Perceptions of the elite, which reflected the perspectives and opinions of experts and insiders in public life on several fronts, including the political, the economic, the media and others. This select group was often hosted by AMAN during the year to participate in a variety of workshops and focus groups, in preparation for writing this report.

[Click here to download the full report.]
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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412