 There have been violent confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli police over the past several months. Amnesty International has documented 18 Israelis and 34 Palestinians killed in March and April, including six children. In May, footage of the funeral of an Al Jazeera reporter allegedly shot by Israeli police led the yuan to call for an international investigation. Though overshadowed by other wars and crises around the world, the Israel-Palestine conflict, stretching three-quarters of a century, is intensifying. A growing number of Palestinians are in favor of living within Israel, having given up on the idea of breaking off to form a separate state. But their lives are constrained by both the Palestinian Authority's corruption and the omnipresence of the Israeli military. The Palestinians comprise a community roughly the same size as the Jewish population within Israel, but don't enjoy the same freedoms and face major restrictions on their movement. What policies could help the Palestinians achieve more political and economic freedom? Fadi Salamin is a political commentator on Arab-Israeli affairs and an adjunct senior fellow at the American Security Project. He's a vocal critic of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, and has survived two assassination attempts. As Salamin believes that an important step in liberating the Palestinian people is monetary freedom, specifically Bitcoin, which can help them bypass the Palestinian Authority's control over their finances. Reason caught up with As Salamin at the 2022 Bitcoin Conference in Miami. Fadi Salamin, thank you so much for speaking to reason. Thank you for having me. I'd like to start out a little bit about your background. You've started your political career since you were 16 years old. I was born in Hebron. I'm the oldest of nine children, and I initially came to the U.S. as part of a Palestinian delegation for an organization called Seeds of Peace, where we would meet with Israelis who are also participants in the same organization, and we would discuss what life was for the Palestinians. It would have been the first time for many Israelis to meet Palestinians. The setting, the area where it was done, was done in the United States, away from Israel, Palestine. That was really my introduction to the political world, the world of politics. That was also the first time where I genuinely had serious conversations with Israelis about how life is for Palestinians. To my shock, I assumed that all Israelis would know how difficult it is for Palestinians under Israeli occupation, but many had no idea. What did you take out of that experience for meeting Israelis in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? It's hard to put it in a concise statement. There were many firsts. For example, you talk about what it is to be Palestinian. If you're an Israeli living in Tel Aviv, you don't come across Palestinians. But if you're an Israeli who is a settler living inside the West Bank, you see Palestinians, but through the lens of right-wing extremist Israeli politics. At 13, at 14, at 15, these are not concepts that you are comfortable with or easily trying to define or even explain to someone who's the same age as you. I would say the first takeaway was they would see me as a human being, as a normal person who's talking, eating, playing sports with them, and so forth. But then you get into the weeds of the issues, the rights of the Palestinians, the history of the creation of Israel, and then you start getting into the narratives and how the narratives diverge. But then also almost something that remains with you regardless whether you agree on the politics or you disagree is that you see the humanity of the other side. For the average person who's even more removed from the Israeli-Palestinian issue, what's it like to be a Palestinian in Palestine right now? So let's just take an example. If you're a Palestinian today living under Israeli military occupation, your life from A to Z is fully under control by the Israeli military, meaning if you want to go to a hospital, if you want to go to get an education outside, if you want to get married, if you want to get your ID, if you want to get your birth certificate, your passport, all of these are decisions that can be interrupted, canceled by an Israeli military personnel. So the occupation literally affects every single aspect of your life. I've known students who their whole entire life path was altered just because they were prevented from getting to medical school outside, whether they were given a scholarship and a room and board and were given a full scholarship to be doctors. But because an Israeli officer decided you're not going, we're not allowing you to travel to this country, they had to become a construction worker. So the occupation is literally, it's like you're in a jail and they decide which cell, which area, which time you have off, you have no control over your life. Most of your work actually touches on something different. Another obstacle that faces Palestinians and that obstacle is actually the Palestinian Authority. So how does the Palestinian Authority play in the role of the occupation? Does it help? Does it augment and how does it add to the complexity of the issue? The way I see it today, the Palestinian Authority is a burden on the Palestinian population. I've always dreamed of an independent Palestinian state that is a democracy, that is free of corruption. But sadly, corruption is the number one enemy of democracy and we've seen this in places like Afghanistan, like Iraq. Palestine is the same today. The Palestinian Authority, almost 84% of the Palestinian population believes that the Palestinian Authority is corrupt. We've spent almost $40 billion inside the Palestinian territory since 1993, almost very little to show for that money. We do have very wealthy politicians. Most of the economic sector is monopolized, monopolized by politicians who are directly linked to the president. The president is in his 18 year term, 18 year of ruling as president and he was only elected for your term. So you can imagine that if you are a young Palestinian hoping to have a role in the economy, in the political process, you have no chance. And if you raise your voice, you're faced with serious retribution by the president and his security apparatus. So it's making a life that's difficult, extremely, extremely difficult. So what is the role of the Palestinian Authority in Palestine? At this point, they're basically a security agency that coordinates security matters with the Israeli military. They offer very few services and you could see this through their budgetary spending. The two thirds of the budget is spent on security, while one third is actually split between all the different sectors, including health, education, and so forth. So it's a very bankrupt organization that definitely needs reform. I'm not against having a Palestinian entity that coordinates not just with Israelis but with the rest of the world, Palestinian affairs and Palestinian issues. But for that to be successful, you have to introduce transparency, anti-corruption measures, democracy, democratic practices into the equation. And these are all variables that are missing. They do not exist. Going back a little bit to the role of the Palestinian Authority, as a Palestinian, how would you face corruption by the Palestinian Authority? What does that look like? It exists on every level. So the majority of the Palestinian economy depends on labor in Israel. And it's been by design like this for decades. And so if you're a Palestinian worker, you need a permit to enter Israel. In order to get a permit in Israel, which is provided to you free by the Israelis, you have to pay the corrupt official, who's now the Minister of Civil Affairs, you have to pay him an amount almost equal to $500 a month. So they levy attacks on you as a worker. You have to pay $500 a month to keep your work permit to be able to go into Israel and earn a wage that you can spend back on your family. That wage also on top of the $500 that you pay as a bribe. That wage is taxed. Social security is held from it, which you never see as part of your future. It's not like when you get a certain age, you will be given back that taxes or and so that's just one simple example. And then you move up, right? You have, for example, the tobacco industry in Palestine is completely controlled by the president and his children. They were local tobacco farmers who were trying to grow their own tobacco. They were taxed at an extremely high rate where they had to completely close shop because the foreign imported tobacco products, which were owned by the president and his family were not taxed as high, right? That's another example. Then they monopolize other parts of the economy, car imports, car dealerships, groceries. You name it. If you want to have a successful business, you can't. So let's say I am a person that wants to go. I'm a Palestinian that wants to work in Israel. What are the steps that I want, would want to take to be able to go to Israel, work, and then come back? And if I were to get paid, what currency would I be getting paid in? And how do I bring it back to Palestine? Or does it stay in Israel? How does that work? If you're a Palestinian trying to work in the labor market in Israel, you need a permit. That permit, what it means is that they do a security background check on you and that you are deemed as a low risk on the security scale. Therefore, you're allowed to enter the labor market. To do that, you have to submit your application to the Palestinian authority, which in turn will submit that to the Israeli intelligence. When you submit your application to the Palestinian authority, they tell you, for us to help you get this permit, you have to pay us a monthly fee of $500. And this is a fee that's off the books. So let's say you go into Israel, you get paid always in Israeli shekels. Let's say you're paid about $100 the equivalent, $100 a day. That stipend, some of it is taken off as social security, some of it is taxes. Some of these taxes are actually sent back to the Palestinian authority. And you as the employee, you never see the taxes that are sent back and you never see the social security that was deducted from your paycheck. Now, you can bring the shekels because under an agreement that the Palestinian authority signed with Israelis, the only legal tender that the Palestinian authority can use is actually the Israeli shekel, a currency that the Palestinians have no control over and have no say in its supply or the way it's spent or we have no say in the Israeli monetary policy, obviously. The point here, Noor, is if you are a Palestinian living under the Palestinian authority, under the Israeli occupation, you have, you're really battling all kinds of forces, whether corruption, whether military occupation, whether lack of freedom, lack of expression, no independence whatsoever. No say because your bank, let's say you earn your wage in the Israeli labor market, your bank account could be frozen on Trump charges. You could be completely innocent, but one person in the security establishment of the Palestinian authority does not like you or you haven't paid your bribe to them, then they will cut off your permit. They will write false information and send it to the Israeli intelligence agencies that says this person all of a sudden is a high-risk individual and should not be given his permit. And then until you pay, they will correct the record again. And so it's a very, very corrupt environment. Let's touch a little bit on the aid aspect of things. The U.S., you know, a lot of countries in the world, but especially the U.S., we send a lot of aid to Palestine. Where does that aid go? To corrupt individuals. Sadly, the aid that is sent by the U.S. or Europe goes to mostly benefit corrupt Palestinian officials. I know it's not an intentional result, but that is the fact. And unless we change the formula in which we are giving aid, so we are not enabling corrupt officials, we're not enabling a corrupt environment, I think the idea of aid will always work against values that we believe in as Americans, democratic values. Because again, corruption is the number one enemy for democracy. And if we're sending aid to strengthen and embolden corruption, we're fighting democracy. And it doesn't make sense to me as a democracy, we'd be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the possibility of Palestinians one day having their own democracy. We need to step back for a second, not only to stop the aid, but stop the way the aid is being sent. And that's what we talked about introducing Bitcoin into the equation. Bitcoin is a solution where the Palestinian authority not only is not involved, the banks are not involved, it's direct aid from the United States, it's direct aid from those who are giving aid directly to the individual who is able to receive it in his or her wallet and spend it accordingly. So we're able to see the results of the money that we're sending. We're in Bitcoin 2022, you know, you're here, you're giving a speech tomorrow, you are on one of the panels. What are you talking about here? The title of the panel Bitcoin is freedom and Bitcoin offers a way for people living under repressive regimes in corrupt societies to earn a living outside of the confinements of corruption, outside the abuse of dictators. And I am a big fan of Bitcoin, especially in Palestine and for Palestinians, because I feel it's one way to curtail the influence of a corrupt regime like the Palestinian authority. But also it's a new way for a Palestinian generation to join the rest of the world. Much of the conflict has held back Palestinian youth. We, you know, the Palestinian population is very young. Gaza has two and a half million people, half of them are under 18 years old. Two thirds of the Palestinian population is under 30 years old, right? 70% of our population is very active on the internet. So if we're going to lift up our society and move it out of poverty, move it away from corruption, move it away from the brutality of the occupation, we need to look into new ways. And with, you know, people looked into the politics, looked into the justice and the injustice, but very few looked into the financial solutions. And I see Bitcoin as a peaceful mean to empower the local population. And by the way, it's not just Palestine. Look at Afghanistan. Now the women who are working on robotics and other ideas are being paid by Bitcoin. Look at Iran, look at Russia, Ukraine. And so in Palestine, Bitcoin is already familiar, but it's not very popular yet. My goal is to link with as many people as possible here, make it available, educate as many people as possible, and spread the idea. How can a Palestinian, you know, at this point right now, you know, transact in Bitcoin? Is that possible inside Palestine? It's possible. So you could, you have two options. You can retain your currency in Bitcoin, and you could pay each other in Bitcoin, depending if the other person has a wallet and is able to send or receive Bitcoin. But if also you decide to sell Bitcoin in exchange for local currency, there are groups that there are exchanges that can actually do that. There are groups on Telegram, there are groups on WhatsApp even, where you could just meet up and say, okay, I'll exchange this many satoshis for this many shekels or dollars. And so, but it's still a very basic market. What is the biggest obstacle, you think, in it being a, is it knowledge or is it being, you know, taken off in Palestine? I think the Palestinian Authority and others will do whatever they can to push back against Bitcoin, because it undermines their monopoly on the economy. It undermines their, you know, income generating model, which they've built for themselves, corruption. But I think this is something you can't stop. And it's already gaining attraction among the young Palestinian population. And it's just a matter of time before others are aware of it. And my goal, my role is really to make wallets as available as possible, the knowledge as available as possible using the right seed signers for the local population so that it's actually a matter of fact that nobody can stop. You are wanted by the Palestinian Authority. Will you explain to us how, how did that happen? I received several death threats, but the most recent one was a death threat by the military wing of Fatah, which is the party of the president, President Mahmoud Abbas. I have grown to be a local critic of the president, of his corruption, of his undemocratic rule. Since 2011, I've talked about how we need to have elections. It's unacceptable that a president can stay 17 years in a one-four year term. It's unacceptable that a president appoints himself to rule by decree, which is almost, basically is a king, right? Only kings as far as I know rule by decree. We have no parliament because the president dissolved the parliament, does not allow parliamentary elections, does not want presidential elections. And so my criticism has been, how do you expect the normal Palestinian to grow up in an environment like this? You know, a Palestinian who's now 15 years old, living in Gaza, has experienced already four wars, four wars on top of this. No elections, no democracy, no freedom of movement, no jobs. And so this has been my voice and I've always put the criticism first at the president. And you know, he's somebody who's arrested people for Facebook posts, he's tortured people for Facebook posts, but he tried to kill me in March of last year and failed. And then in June tried and succeeded and killed my friend Nizar Banat. A group of security agents went into his house, grabbed him, beat him up with metal clubs until he died. That's why it's for the president and his authority, they see the ideology that I spread as being very dangerous. They blame me for waking up the youth against the political system when really what I'm doing is normal. You can't be an educated anybody, Palestinian or any other nationality living in America where you see around you a democracy functioning and then not hope that some of that would exist in your own country and where it would exist with, you know, among the people that you came from. And you know, they call us human rights activists, you know, anti-corruption activists, but I really believe that we are dreamers, we're dreamers without illusions who hope one day that democracy would be the norm in our countries so that, you know, I left when I was 14 years old to get an education in America and I hope that nobody else has to leave, you know, but if you want people to stay, if you want people to hold onto an idea, you have to give them a compelling idea. And to me, democracy is a very compelling, successful idea. So that's why I'm wanted because I'm a pro-democracy anti-corruption activist. Do you still think that's the two state solution possible? The two state solutions in the current environment I think is already dead. I think you will find very few people that will tell you it's alive. I think the veneer of a two state solution is kept alive in order to be able to play politics and say that there's still the hope, there's still the possibility. And so some, you know, some politicians will go and pretend that it's possible, but I think everybody knows that it's dead. It doesn't exist anymore. What do you think the average Palestinian thinks about right now in terms of, you know, solving the conflict? Because, you know, on the outside it just seems ideological. The reality of that is a little different. I remember asking during the last Gaza war, asking different friends, I was going to do a TV interview and I asked him, what is your message to the world? What do you want the world to know about you? And I remember the common phrase was, we just want to live. We want to have a normal life. That's it. Peace is a luxury at this point. It's not an attainable, you know, goal, but a normal life would be really amazing. That's basically it. That's our demand. A life where I could get up as a Palestinian and say, today I'm going to go to the doctor. I'm going to go to Tel Aviv, buy a computer maybe. Yes, I'm going to import my goods and be able to sell them online. I can buy something online, which I cannot as a Palestinian. Now it's very difficult just to live a normal life. That's it. Are you going to go back to Palestine at any point? Yes, I will go back. I go back often, quietly, so that the president doesn't know that I am there, but I'm always there. Fadi Salami, thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you so much, Noor.