New Survey: 96% of Palestinians believe Palestinian authority is corrupt
by TheTower.org Staff | 05.24.16 5:30 pm

A recent poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip found that 95.5 percent believe that there is corruption the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The survey of 1,200 people, conducted by the independent Palestinian firm AWRAD, also found that 82 percent of Gazans believe the same of Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the coastal enclave. “This is the highest rate I have ever seen in all the polls I have done,” Nader Said, who runs the polling agency, told the AP.

Public perceptions of endemic corruption among Palestinian elites are reinforced by the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by top PA officials, as well as the lack of transparency and accountability displayed by the Palestinian government, the AP reported.

In general, the lack of trust in Abbas is also linked to his failure to deliver statehood to the Palestinians despite being in office for a decade, more than twice as long as the 4-year term he was elected to in 2005.

While some experts think that opinions of PA corruption may be overblown, the AP noted that “secretiveness among Abbas and his advisers and a lack of responsiveness have fanned suspicions among the public that the political elite enjoy privileges and special deals at the expense of everyone else.”

One example of such secretiveness is the PA’s failure to submit its budget for required audits over the past four years. According to Aman, the Palestinian branch of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, the lack of audits means that there’s no oversight of how millions of dollars are spent every year. Muayad Afaneh, a researcher for Aman, said “there is a great lack of transparency in the budget, and this opens the door to everything negative,” including corruption.

While PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has dismissed the allegations as “rumors,” pollster Said explained that this is part of the problem. “The leadership style of President Abbas is … perceived as elitist,” he explained. “He is surrounded by a very small group of people … He does not care about having a debate in the country on the issues.”

The Palestinian parliament, which provided some measure of oversight, has not functioned since Hamas’ 2007 military takeover of Gaza, leaving the PA and Hamas free “to [rule] by decree.” With no effective oversight, “[both] governments have rewarded party faithful with jobs and other perks.”

An example of this favoritism is a subsidized gated community on the outskirts of Ramallah called the “Diplomatic Compound,” where senior PA officials live in villas. AP described the community as “one of the symbols of what many Palestinians think is wrong with their leaders — that they are cut off from the people and award themselves special privileges.”

In a review of the little budget information available, the AP noted that of the PA’s “development” budget of $17.9 million for the first quarter of 2014, $9.4 million was budgeted for Abbas’ presidential plane and another $4.4 million was budgeted for “other” expenses. Afaneh, the corruption researcher, said that the plane, which is meant for communal expenses, didn’t belong in a development budget, and that designating so much money as “other” raises suspicions.

Senior PA officials, according to the AP, can be paid $10,000 a month, about ten times the salary of the average government worker.

The ongoing corruption in the PA and the lack of a Western response to it, combined with Abbas’ continuing power grabs, “[set] back the very legitimacy of the Palestinian national project,” Grant Rumley, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote earlier this month.

[Photo: Issam Rimawi / Flash90 ]

http://www.thetower.org/3414-new-survey-96-of-palestinians-believe-palestinian-authority-is-corrupt/

GOD BLESS ISREAL

bedspread:
GOD BLESS ISREAL

Can't You pray for your country for once. The people in isreal don't give a hoot about you.

Lucasbalo:
Can't You pray for your country for once. The people in isreal don't give a hoot about you.

I GIVE A LOT OF HOOTS ABOUT THEM....

bedspread:
I GIVE A LOT OF HOOTS ABOUT THEM....

You pray for your country so the blessings of God will trickle down to you and your family not for some country that doesn't care of your existence in life. Misplaced priority and ultimate self hating.

Lucasbalo:
You pray for your country so the blessings of God will trickle down to you and your family not for some country that doesn't care of your existence in life. Misplaced priority and ultimate self hating.

To get the Blessing Faster, Pray For Others...
GOD BLESS ISREAL

bedspread:
To get the Blessing Faster, Pray For Others...
GOD BLESS ISREAL

Keep deceiving yourself because charity begins at home.

Lucasbalo:
Keep deceiving yourself because charity begins at home.

GOD BLESS ISREAL

bedspread:
GOD BLESS ISREAL

God bless America and Nigeria.

Lucasbalo:
God bless America and Nigeria.

AMEN

Lucasbalo:


God bless America and Nigeria.

God only blesses those who are not anti-semitic.

OLAADEGBU:


God only blesses those who are not anti-semitic.

You need your medulla flushed out with hydrogen peroxide.

Lucasbalo:


You need your medulla flushed out with hydrogen peroxide.

If you are antisemitic you are under the biggest curse.

OLAADEGBU:


If you are antisemitic you are under the biggest curse.

Fooool. The Semites don't give a fvck about you. Been blessed by the Good one above so that I don't lick the a*s of a racist piece of garbage.

Lucasbalo:


Fooool. The Semites don't give a fvck about you. Been blessed by the Good one above so that I don't lick the a*s of a racist piece of garbage.

Do some reading and educate yourself, liberal.

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/it-true-god-blesses-those-who-bless-israel-and-curses-those-who-curse-israel/

OLAADEGBU:


Do some reading and educate yourself, liberal.

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/it-true-god-blesses-those-who-bless-israel-and-curses-those-who-curse-israel/

Racist pig a*s licking brainstem.

Lucasbalo:


Racist pig a*s licking brainstem.

"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" Genesis 12:3 (ESV).

Says the God of Israel to father Abraham.

OLAADEGBU:



"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" Genesis 12:3 (ESV).

Says the God of Israel to father Abraham.

I have been so blessed by the Good man above that's beyond my wildest dreams growing up in Uptown section of Chitown. So your blessing will come from the racist pig who think of your ilks as animal. Damaged medulla.

Lucasbalo:
Can't You pray for your country for once. The people in isreal don't give a hoot about you.

God bless Israel

God bless Donald Trump

God bless Mike Pence

God forgive/judge Buharia and Osunbade.

Lucasbalo:
Keep deceiving yourself because charity begins at home.

Which charity?

Lucasbalo:
Can't You pray for your country for once. The people in isreal don't give a hoot about you.

It is not about their hoot but about my own hoot.


God bless Israel!!!!!!

jusRadical:



God bless Israel

God bless Donald Trump

God bless Mike Pence

God forgive/judge Buharia and Osunbade.

With all your prayers for Israel, Israelis don't think of you. Been to Israel four times on official duty and you will be disappointed the way they treat Africans like you. You couldn't know that because you have never been there before. Maybe if you pray for your country, that blessings will trickle down to you.

Lucasbalo:
With all your prayers for Israel, Israelis don't think of you. Been to Israel four times on official duty and you will be disappointed the way they treat Africans like you. You couldn't know that because you have never been there before. Maybe if you pray for your country, that blessings will trickle down to you.

Like I said, God bless Israel.

Pray for which country? Nigeria? For what exactly?

jusRadical:



Like I said, God bless Israel.

Pray for which country? Nigeria? For what exactly?

Then You are condemn to perpetual life of misery then because you don't live in isreal. I will pray for America and even Nigeria before I pray for any damn country in the world.

Lucasbalo:
Then You are condemn to perpetual life of misery then because you don't live in isreal. I will pray for America and even Nigeria before I pray for any damn country in the world.

God bless Israel

God bless Trump/Pence

God judge/forgive buharia/osunbade

bedspread:


GOD BLESS ISREAL

Amen!