Last update - 02:06 18/12/2007
Donors pledge $7.4 billion to PA
By Assaf Uni and Avi Issacharoff
PARIS - The international community yesterday promised the Palestinians an unprecedented amount of aid - $7.4 billion - to provide the economic foundations for the future Palestinian state.
The sum was beyond all expectations; the Palestinians themselves had requested $5.6 billion. The money will be transfered to the Palestinian Authority over the next three years.
Over 90 countries and international organizations attended the international donors' conference for the Palestinian state, and the one-day meeting was an economic and political show of support for PA President Mahmoud Abbas and for the post-Annapolis rejuvenated peace process.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone in the conference's opening speech when he talked about the historic possibility to establish a Palestinian state. "What we must do now is work together before the end of 2008 for the creation of an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state. Be generous, be audacious. Peace depends on it and this peace will help all the world," he said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair, only two of the long list leaders and dignitaries attending the conference, joined Sarkozy's call.
Sixty-six countries each received two minutes to announce the amount of their contribution, said a French diplomat, briefing reporters on the events at the closed conference. Saudi Arabia received heavy applause when it announced a $770 million donation, he said.
Among other notable contributors were the European Union, $650 million for next year alone; France, Germany and Britain who will contribute about a combined $1 billion; the U.S. with a $555 million donation that requires Congressional approval; and Norway with $420 million.
The sums may change somewhat, as due to the time constraints it was not always clear whether the sums pledged were in dollars or euros, the French diplomat said.
"The most impressive achievement was that we managed to raise more money than we requested," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at the end of the conference. He said that 70 percent of the funds would go on the PA's operating budget, and the rest would be used for economic development projects.
Alongside the consensus on the need to aid the PA, there was also wide agreement that Israel needs to end settlement construction and remove West Bank roadblocks.
Sarkozy said that Israeli roadblocks must be removed to allow the Palestinian economy to breathe. Abbas called on Israel to freeze all West Bank settlement construction without exception: "I'll be eager to implement all our commitments under the road map, and I expect the Israeli side to do the same, comprehensively, and without excuses, by us or by them," Abbas told delegates. "I expect them to stop all settlement activities, without exception."
The Israeli delegation expressed satisfaction that most speakers also related to Israel's security concerns.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told representatives Israel is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. She said that economic development in the Palestinian Authority and the maintenance of Israel's security were codependent. "We need you to know that Palestinian welfare and Israeli security are not mutually exclusive interests," she added.
She told donors that a three-year Palestinian reform plan is a serious effort to build the foundation of a Palestinian state. "We welcome the Palestinian reform plan as a serious effort to build the basis for a responsible Palestinian state that the Palestinian people so deserve and that peace so needs," Livni said.