Meanwhile, Palestinian investigations into the matter give a some what different picture - the occupation is the root problem, and while corruption is a serious issue, the occupation promotes and exarcerbates Palestinian corruption. It fits nicely with the UNCTAD report that describes a process of "de-industrialization", and the World Bank report that describes near stagnation and erosion of the productive economy in Palestine.
Eighth Annual Report, Integrity and Combating Corruption
Source: The Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN), 2015
Executive summary
The Israeli occupation: an environment obstructing anti-corruption efforts
The continued Israeli occupation through its extremist policies against the Palestinian people in the West Bank (WB) and Gaza Strip (GS) aims to uproot Palestinians from their land. To achieve its racist goals, Israel is constantly making life impossible to bear for the indigenous people (Palestinians), hoping to take their place. Its practices include but are not limited to the Judaisation of Jerusalem (i.e., aiming to have a “pure” Jewish Jerusalem), control over Palestinian border crossings, and clamping down on Palestinian rights and economy. One example is its continuous exploitation of control of granting travel permissions for Palestinian businessmen and women to travel as well as work licenses. These policies and practices provided opportunities for a number of Israeli officials to take bribes in exchange for services mentioned. A number of these bribes was revealed in areas of civil and land services. Moreover, Israeli occupation’s policies led to the outbreak of the phenomenon of individual acts by Palestinian youth and children at the beginning of October 2015, and are continuing until today.
The continuation of the internal division; a reinforcement factor for corruption
Failure of all attempts to end the division as disputes continued between the PA in the WB and Hamas in the GS, where both parties constantly exchanged mutual accusations, blaming one another for the failure of the reconciliation process. This contributed to reinforce behavior and actions of corruption such as politicizing public services employment; monopoly over appointment in high-ranking positions for loyalists of the two main parties, in the WB and the GS; in addition to the continuation of waste of public funds as a result of paying salaries for employees on strike in the GS.
The Palestinian Legislative Council remains defunct
This imbalance led to the absence of official accountability, and left decisions solely in the hands of the executive authority, hence providing a favorable environment for corruption.
The continuous siege imposed on the GS opened the way for the spread of petty bribery in order to obtain services
Stalled reconstruction efforts, and obstruction by the Israeli occupation entry of construction material needed for reconstruction was reflected in daily lives of Palestinians, epitomized by the decline in opportunities to obtain services related to travel and or medical treatment referrals, which require obtaining permits. This provided opportunities for certain forms of corruption such as bribery, wasta and nepotism.
Read more:
https://www.aman-palestine.org/data/itemfiles/f86f49da1e937975db98fd3e3957822a.pdf
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