Afternoon with IPCRI: Palestinian State Building - Professor Hisham Awartani

This event was supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands.

Hisham Awartani - Professor of Economics at the An-Najah University in Nablus speaks about Palestinian state building at an event organized by IPCRI. According to the Professor a lot has been done the last two years. He is convinced that the happy marriage between President Mahmud Abbes and Prime-Minister Salam Fayyad made an end to the chaos and transformed the Palestinian armed struggle in a peaceful civil entity. As a result the PA established a full range of service institutions and the Palestinian Territories now has some fundamental features of democracy especially with regard to freedom of expression.

The Professor is however of the opinion that there are some important issues for improvements. He mentions the oversized public institutions that weigh heavily on the budget, but also the 'paralyzed' legislative council that really needs to be reformed in order to be effective. In his eyes however, the main obstacle for effective state-building remains the reluctance of Israel to give the Palestinians their own state. Israel controls all natural resources and restricts movements by putting up physical and financial barriers. Not only for security interests, but also for economic interests as the trade deficit is hugely in favor of Israel. His solution is to stop trying to reach a one or two state solution, as he believes will never happen, but to extend the present situation by agreeing on some kind of 'economic peace' that will ensure improvements in Palestinian's living conditions. As such, negotiations should focus on economics, not on politics.

He also mentions other important area that needs to get more attention in the coming years. The effectiveness of foreign aid should for example be improved -- less than 50% of the money gets to its actual destination -- in order to boost economic growth and create jobs. Moreover, the professor, like the World Bank Report, underlines the importance of stimulating the private sector.

On the same topic also World Bank resident representative Mariam Sherman spoke. see her video on: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLhApTnIb00

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Palestinian State Building
• Hisham Awartani
• IPCRI
• Afternoon
• Israel
• Palestine
• West Bank
• Economy
• Developments
• Future
• An-Najah University
• 2011

[shimonzk]

I attended this meeting and his insight is very interesting. He has great ideas and understanding of what is happening in our area.