{"id":4964,"date":"2006-05-08T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-08T07:08:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T11:44:09","slug":"epalestine-world-bank-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2006\/05\/epalestine-world-bank-says\/","title":{"rendered":"World Bank says underestimated Palestinian crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Bank says underestimated Palestinian crisis  <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Mon May 8, 2006 12:58 AM ET  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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By Adam Entous  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The World Bank warned donors on Sunday that the financial crisis gripping the Palestinian Authority since Hamas won election was deeper than it first thought and could render the West Bank and Gaza ungovernable.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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In a memo circulated among major donors and obtained by Reuters, the World Bank also said an existing aid program could be expanded to pay for the salaries of employees of the Hamas-led government.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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In March, the World Bank projected that by the end of 2006 Palestinian poverty and unemployment levels would rise to 67 and 40 percent, and personal incomes would drop by 30 percent. <\/strong> <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"We now consider these figures underestimates," it said in the memo.  <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Western diplomats said the World Bank circulated the memo ahead of a meeting in New York on Tuesday of the Quartet of Middle East negotiators — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Western powers led by the United States and the European Union have frozen direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to put pressure on Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel and abide by interim peace deals.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Local, regional and international banks, fearful of being hit with U.S. anti-terrorism sanctions and lawsuits, have refused to deal with the Authority.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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As a result, the Hamas-led government has been unable to pay salaries to 165,000 public employees since March, prompting concerns of a humanitarian crisis that could trigger an upsurge in Middle East violence.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"UNGOVERNABLE"  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"A continuation of this crisis threatens to undermine Palestinian institutions and cause severe damage to structures that donors have been building since 1993," the World Bank said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"The institutional decay will likely also have a negative impact on security, which in turn would make it difficult for government, the private sector and providers of humanitarian assistance to operate properly.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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"The ensuing institutional damage may be irreversible and could lead to a situation in which West Bank and Gaza in effect becomes ungovernable," the World Bank said.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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To ease the crisis while bypassing the Hamas-led government, European powers Britain and France have backed the creation of a special trust fund to help pay salaries to at least health and education workers.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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But Western diplomats say the United States has been trying to block the proposal on the grounds that paying salaries would take pressure off Hamas.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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In its memo, the World Bank said an existing program, known as the Emergency Services Support Project (ESSP), has for the last five years provided support to the Palestinian ministries of education, health and social affairs.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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According to the memo, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority "itself has said that it has no objection in principle to a temporary bypassing of its fiduciary mechanisms".  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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The World Bank said donor assistance dropped "more precipitously than expected", Israel further tightened Gaza and West Bank restrictions, and financial transactions by Palestinian banks have been sharply curtailed.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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© Reuters 2006.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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http:\/\/today.reuters.com\/news\/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05- 08T045759Z_01_L07725573_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-HAMA<\/span><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

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World Bank says underestimated Palestinian crisis  Mon May 8, 2006 12:58 AM ET  By Adam Entous  JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The World Bank warned donors on Sunday that the financial crisis gripping the Palestinian Authority since Hamas won election was deeper than it first thought and could render the West Bank and Gaza ungovernable.  In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1401],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-4964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hamas"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"

Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n

A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n

He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7953,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions\/7953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}