Worse than occupation

An Associated Press story about how Hamas and Fatah are both clamping down on dissent in the territories that each controls observes:

The U.S. and Europe have said little about violations in the West Bank, even as they’re spending millions of dollars on police training to help lay the foundations of a democratic Palestine. The foreign trainers say the abuse isn’t carried out by security forces under their supervision.

Both Hamas and Fatah portray the sweeps as security measures, and play down rights violations as isolated.

Forget for a moment whether giving Hamas and Fatah money helps them perpetuate their wars against Israel, if the money is helping them oppress their own people isn’t that reason to stop funding them? Wasn’t the goal to have a secular democratic state living side by side with Israel? In the case of Hamas neither quality is emerging and in the case of Fatah the democratic aspect is rather lacking.

Then there’s the town of Mawassi in Gaza where Palestinians want Israel back.

Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in that time the economy has gone from bad to worse. “I want [the Israelis] to come back,” says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight from Mawassi – a mixed ethnic Palestinian and Bedouin town located in the middle of Gush Katif – who worked in the area’s Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years. “All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren.” Before Israel withdrew, Mawassi was a town of fertile corn crops and greenhouses, which – like the ones in the Jewish settlements – grew cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and strawberries. Now, only shells remain of many of the greenhouses that were stripped of valuable materials. A town that fed itself with its produce and the money its men made from working with the settlers, Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the UN.

One of the premises behind the peace process is that there was no greater evil than occupation. But given Israel’s deteriorating security position over the past 15 years and the Palestinians declining freedom, isn’t time to reconsider that there’s nothing worse than occupation?

At the very least might the international community reconsider if funneling money to the Palestinians with no conditions is the best way to encourage their independence?

via Daily Alert

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.