International aid to the Palestinians grew from about $1 billion in 2005 to more than $1.2 billion in 2006, despite a boycott of Hamas government, officials said Wednesday.
Much of it was emergency aid from Europe, the United Nations and the Arab world that was funneled to people outside the government to ease a humanitarian crisis largely triggered by the international sanctions.
In the past year, the Palestinians received more than $1.2 billion, compared to $1 billion in 2005, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. Mario Mariani, the head of the European emergency aid mechanism, said total European aid came to about $930 million in 2006, a rise of more than 30 percent from the year before.
The aid was delivered less effectively because in a bid to bypass the Hamas government it went to multiple recipients, including Abbas' office and Palestinians' personal bank accounts, rather than to the Treasury. "More money was spent in a less coordinated manner," said Pierre Bessuges, OCHA's deputy director in the Palestinian areas.
"The donor community, particularly the Europeans, first invested billions in the institutional development of the Palestinian Authority, and over the past year, invested in a policy that basically dismantled the past achievements," said Mouin Rabbani, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, an independent think tank.
With the boycott, the Hamas government had problems paying the salaries of civil servants, whose incomes provide for one quarter of the Palestinians. The government also struggled with providing basic services, such as health care, welfare payments and education.
The U.N. initially had budgeted $216 million in 2006 on food distribution and ensuring basic services. After the sanctions took hold, the humanitarian appeal for 2006 was increased to $384 million. In 2007, the U.N. is seeking $454 million in emergency contributions for the Palestinians, Bessuges said.
European emergency aid - the so-called Temporary International Mechanism, of TIM - was crucial to survival, according to the AP. Established in June, the fund has paid out $415 million through February.
It kept hospitals running, supplied emergency fuel after Israel bombed Gaza's power station last June over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, and helped pay salaries of more than 77,000 civil servants. In all, TIM sent money to 150,000 heads of households, including social hardship cases, benefiting about 1 million people, fund officials say.
The Arab world sent hundreds of millions of dollars, and the outgoing Hamas-backed finance minister, Samir Abu Eisha, said some $68 million were brought into Gaza in suitcases of cash by Hamas officials in 2006.
Yet despite the large amounts of money coming in, the Palestinian Gross Domestic Product fell by 6.6 percent in 2006, according to George al-Abed, head of the Palestinian Monetary Fund.
