After Oslo, the Palestinian Authority received at least $27 billion...
Jim Garrison Keillor@books_rum
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Apr 05, 2024
~2 min read
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After Oslo, the Palestinian Authority received at least $27 billion in aid from the IMF, the World Bank, USAID and other sources. It just made the PA more authoritarian and did nothing to stop Israel's land theft
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Imagine thinking any of these projects would make a difference while Israel controls 58% of the West Bank and Gaza's blockade gets worse and worse
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With all this aid there are webs and webs of contractors; deciphering who received what money is increasingly difficult
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The growth of the contracting industry 2003-2014
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Some of USAID's top for-profit contractors. Agriculture, supply chain, economic development and infrastructure development.
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A lot of these contractors have previously worked for USAID. As the article says, through this system taxpayer money quickly becomes private wealth
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The majority of the contractors are in these wealthy counties, and a majority of their funds go to executive salaries and consultants. How much did these firms actually "build" in Iraq and Afghanistan? Occupied Palestine?
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In Afhanistan, much of the promised aid was not disbursed, and much that was disbursed went to undisclosed sources or the government in Kabul. Very little aid went to poor rural areas.
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A ton of aid money was spent on security services to protect western aid officials in Kabul! The 3000 km Ring Road, improved and fixed by USAID, has made Afghanistan even more dependent on imports, and maintaining the road costs the Afghan government $1 billion/5 years
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Another article, not pulling punches: as of 2013, the US had "utterly wasted" $100 billion in aid
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The IDEA-NEW program spent $150 million to get Afghanistan to quit opium production, and ended up increasing it by 61%
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Meanwhile the IMF's "aid" to the Middle East is the usual austerity economics: External public debt in the Arab region grew considerably from 2010 to 2021, increasing from 23% to 37% of GDP and from 71% to 122% of exports arabwatchcoalition.org/2023/12/18/the…
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Iraq's debt has risen to $152 billion after twenty years of forced privatization and deregulation from the IMF and the World Bank shafaq.com/en/Economy/The…
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"The economic restructuring of Iraq to benefit foreign investors was most likely one of the main motivations for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq ? or at least a highly profitable windfall" cadtm.org/Operation-Corp…
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No surprise that Paul Wolfowitz (later World Bank president) told Bush to invade Iraq on 9-12
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78 World Bank projects in Iraq alone, going back to the 50s projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-op…
