Weltbank unterstützt Israels Mauerbau.

Die Welt­bank soll fest in ame­ri­ka­ni­scher Hand blei­ben, so will es der Herr der Dinge die­ser Welt, der Herr Bush. Unan­ge­nehm, dass sein Chef­ideo­loge Wol­fo­witz gehen musste; aber noch schlim­mer wäre es, nun Ter­rain zu ver­lie­ren. Denn die Welt­bank macht Poli­tik – und zwar eine recht frag­wür­dige, die eine Unter­su­chung der Sonoma Uni­ver­sity, Kali­for­nien, ergab.

Auf der Web­site Pro­ject Cen­so­red berich­ten Pro­fes­so­ren und Stu­den­ten der Sonoma State Uni­ver­sity aus ihrer For­schung nach dem Ver­bleib von unter­ge­gan­ge­nen Mel­dun­gen, die in unab­hän­gi­gen Medien vor­ka­men, aber nicht von den gän­gi­gen Bezahl­me­dien auf­ge­grif­fen wur­den. Die Wis­sen­schaft­ler haben die The­men und Hin­ter­gründe über­prüft und aus den trif­tigs­ten Fäl­len ein Buch gemacht, des­sen Bei­träge auch online publi­ziert wur­den. Dar­un­ter fin­det sich auch diese Story:

#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall

Sour­ces:

Left Turn Issue #18
Title: “Cemen­ting Israeli Apart­heid: The Role of World Bank”
Aut­hor: Jamal Juma’

Al-Jazeerah, March 9, 2005
Title: “US Free Trade Agree­ments Split Arab Opi­nion”
Aut­hor: Linda Heard

Com­mu­nity Eva­lua­tor: April Hur­ley, MD
Stu­dent Rese­ar­chers: Bai­ley Malone and Lisa Dobias

Des­pite the 2004 Inter­na­tio­nal Court of Justice (ICJ) deci­sion that cal­led for tearing down the Wall and com­pen­sa­ting affec­ted com­mu­nities, con­struc­tion of the Wall has acce­le­ra­ted. The route of the bar­rier runs deep into Palesti­nian ter­ritory, aiding the annexa­tion of Israeli sett­le­ments and the brea­king of Palesti­nian ter­ri­to­rial con­ti­nuity. The World Bank’s vision of “eco­no­mic deve­lop­ment,” howe­ver, eva­des any dis­cus­sion of the Wall’s illegality.

The World Bank has mean­while out­lined the frame­work for a Palesti­nian Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) policy in their most recent report on Palestine publis­hed in Decem­ber of 2004, “Sta­gna­tion or Revi­val: Israeli Dis­en­ga­ge­ment and Palesti­nian Eco­no­mic Prospects.”

Cen­tral to World Bank pro­po­sals are the con­struc­tion of mas­sive indus­trial zones to be finan­ced by the World Bank and other donors and con­trol­led by the Israeli Occupa­tion. Built on Palesti­nian land around the Wall, these indus­trial zones are envi­sa­ged as for­ming the basis of export-orientated eco­no­mic deve­lop­ment. Palesti­ni­ans impri­soned by the Wall and dis­pos­ses­sed of land can be put to work for low wages.

The post-Wall MEFTA vision inclu­des com­plete con­trol over Palesti­nian move­ment. The report pro­po­ses high-tech mili­tary gates and check­points along the Wall, through which Palesti­ni­ans and exports can be con­ve­ni­ently trans­por­ted and con­trol­led. A supp­le­men­tal “trans­fer sys­tem” of wal­led roads and tun­nels will allow Palesti­nian workers to be fun­neled to their jobs, while being simul­ta­neously denied access to their land.

Sweat­shops will be one of very few pos­si­bi­li­ties of earning a living for Palesti­ni­ans con­fined to dis­pa­rate ghet­tos throug­hout the West Bank. The World Bank states:

“In an impro­ved ope­ra­ting environ­ment, Palesti­nian entre­pre­neurs and for­eign inves­tors will look for well-serviced indus­trial land and sup­porting infra­struc­ture. They will also seek a regu­latory régime with a mini­mum of ‘red tape’ and with clear pro­ce­du­res for con­duc­ting busi­ness. Indus­trial Esta­tes (IEs), par­ti­cu­larly those on the bor­der bet­ween Palesti­nian and Israeli ter­ritory, can ful­fill this need and the­reby play an import­ant role in sup­porting export based growth.”

Jamal Juma’ notes that the “red tape” which the World Bank refers to can be pre­su­med to mean trade uni­ons, a mini­mum wage, good working con­di­ti­ons, environ­men­tal pro­tec­tion, and other workers’ rights that will be more fle­xi­ble than the ones in the “deve­l­o­ped” world. The World Bank exp­li­citly sta­tes that cur­rent wages of Palesti­ni­ans are too high for the region and “com­pro­mise the inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­tiv­en­ess” even though wages are only a quar­ter of the aver­age in Israel. Juma’ warns that on top of a mili­tary occupa­tion and forced expul­sion, Palesti­ni­ans are to be sub­jects of an eco­no­mic colonialism.

These indus­trial zones will cle­arly bene­fit Israel abroad where goods “Made in Palestine” have more favor­able trade con­di­ti­ons in inter­na­tio­nal mar­kets. IPS repor­ter Emad Mekay, in Febru­ary 2005, revea­led the World Bank’s plan to par­ti­ally fund Palesti­nian MEFTA infra­struc­ture with loans to Palestine. Israel is not eli­gi­ble for World Bank len­ding because of its high per capita income, but Palestine is. Mekay quo­tes Terry Walz of the Washington-based Coun­cil for the Natio­nal Inte­rest, a group that moni­tors U.S. and inter­na­tio­nal policy towards Israel and the Palesti­ni­ans: “I must admit that making the Palesti­ni­ans pay for the moder­niza­tion of these check­points is an embar­rass­ment, since they had not­hing to do with the erec­tion of the sepa­ra­tion wall to begin with and in fact have pro­tes­ted it. I think the whole issue is extre­mely murky.”1

Mekay goes on to note that this is the first time the World Bank appears ready to get actively invol­ved in the Israeli occupa­tion of Palesti­nian land. For­mer World Bank pre­si­dent James Wol­fen­sohn rejec­ted this pos­si­bi­lity last year. Neo-conservative Paul Wol­fo­witz was, howe­ver, con­fir­med as pre­si­dent of the World Bank on June 1, 2005.
In bre­ach of the ICJ ruling, the U.S. has alre­ady con­tri­bu­ted $50 mil­lion to con­struct gates along the Wall to “help serve the needs of Palestinians.”

Linda Heard reports for Al-Jazeerah that the U.S. is cur­rently pus­hing for bila­te­ral Free Trade Agree­ments (FTAs) with various Arab sta­tes, inclu­ding mem­bers of the Gulf Coö­pe­ra­tion Coun­cil (GCC), as part of a vision for a lar­ger Middle East Free Trade Agree­ment. Pre­si­dent Bush hopes the MEFTA will encom­pass some twenty regio­nal coun­tries, inclu­ding Israel, and be fully con­so­li­da­ted by 2013.

Many in the region are sus­pi­cious of the divi­sive trend of bila­te­ral agree­ments with the U.S. and worry that the GCC will end up with small, frag­men­ted satel­lite eco­no­mies wit­hout any lever­age against world giants. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Saudi for­eign minis­ter, sta­ted, “It is alar­ming to see some mem­bers of the GCC enter into sepa­rate agree­ments with inter­na­tio­nal powers . . . They dimi­nish the collec­tive bar­gai­ning power and wea­ken not only the soli­da­rity of the GCC as a whole, but also each of its members.”

Note
1. Emad Mekay, “World Bank and U.S.: Palesti­ni­ans Should Pay for Israeli Check­points,” IPS, Febru­ary 25, 2005.

UPDATE BY JAMAL JUMA’

“Cemen­ting Israeli Apart­heid: The Role of the World Bank” was writ­ten last sum­mer as part of Stop the Wall’s cam­paign efforts to widen atten­tion of those hor­ri­fied by the con­struc­tion of the 700 km long wall around Palesti­nian cities and vil­la­ges. It aimed to expose the vicious mecha­nism of con­trol, exploi­ta­tion, and dis­pos­ses­sion devi­sed by the Occupa­tion, but more­over the activi­ties of the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­nity in safe­guar­ding the Wall and making Palesti­nian ghet­tos sustainable.

It opens a chap­ter in a story that no one wants to hear: the glo­ba­liza­tion of apart­heid in the Occupa­tion of Palestine. Zio­nism has its own racist inte­rest in ghet­toi­zing 4 mil­lion Palesti­ni­ans in the West Bank and Gaza and secu­ring the judaiza­tion of Jeru­sa­lem. It ensu­res a Jewish demo­gra­phic majo­rity and eth­nic supre­macy over as much of Palestine as pos­si­ble, working against all UN reso­lu­ti­ons and the recent ICJ ruling on the Wall.
Wit­hin this pro­ject it finds allies in the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­nity keen to exploit cheap Palesti­nian labor locked behind Walls and gates. The degree to which Zio­nism and the inter­na­tio­nal community—headed by the World Bank—work toge­ther with the aim of con­trol­ling every aspect of Palesti­nian life has become incre­a­sin­gly evi­dent since the Left Turn article.

The Palesti­nian Authority’s (PA) role is redu­ced to the admi­nis­tra­tors of the Ban­tus­tans. The Palesti­nian people resoun­din­gly said no to Ban­tus­tans at the bal­lot boxes last January.

While the Bank’s initial responsi­bi­lity was to devise eco­no­mic poli­cies for the sus­taina­bi­lity of a Palesti­nian Bantu-State, the insti­tu­tion is now faci­li­ta­ting efforts to ensure that Palesti­ni­ans can­not inter­fere in the plans of the Occupa­tion and the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­nity. The World Bank is gearing up to take over the pay­rolls of various Palesti­nian insti­tu­ti­ons, should the PA not com­ply with Zio­nist and glo­bal interests.

While glo­bal IFIs meti­cu­lously plan the finan­cial and mate­rial sur­vi­val and poli­ti­cal con­trol of the ghet­tos, Ehud Olmert offers the slo­gan of “Final Bor­ders” to describe the pro­ject. In legi­ti­mi­zing the Wall, annex­ing Jeru­sa­lem, incre­a­sing the num­ber of sett­lers, and deny­ing the mere exis­tence of the refu­gees, Olmert finds a wil­ling accom­plice in the Bank and its policy makers in Washing­ton, who look to cash in on the Bantu-State.

The Palesti­nian people will never accept the plan, so it is hoped that they will be star­ved into it. But we will not kneel down. After dozens of mas­sa­cres, kil­lings, arrests, and almost sixty years of life in the Dia­spora, sur­ren­der is too high a price to pay. We are not asking for outs­ide insti­tu­ti­ons to pro­vide us with bread, but to com­ply with their duties under inter­na­tio­nal law and sup­port our struggle for justice and liberation.

None of the hor­ri­fic rea­li­ties of life in Palestine are appa­rent in the head­lines and dou­ble­speak of mass media and inter­na­tio­nal diplo­macy, where our ghet­toiza­tion is cal­led “state-building.” Inter­na­tio­nal com­pli­city with Israeli apart­heid is dres­sed up as “huma­ni­ta­rian aid.” Palesti­ni­ans are sup­po­sed to be gra­te­ful for gates in the Wall so they can be fun­neled bet­ween ghettos.

Just like Olmert’s sche­mes with the White House, the media shuns and neglects the rights and voices of Palesti­ni­ans. Neit­her the daily kil­ling of our people, nor the destruc­tion of our homes, the dis­pos­ses­sion of our far­mers, or the suf­fe­rings of 6 mil­lion refu­gees make head­lines. The con­su­mers of main­stream media out­lets are left to dis­cuss the dia­tribe of “peace” and “bor­ders,” dis­pu­ted bet­ween the prot­ago­nists of our opp­res­sion, while the racism, eth­nic cle­an­sing, and ghet­toiza­tion continue.

More infor­ma­tion on the issue is to be found at our web­site: http://www.stopthewall.org

Viel­leicht inter­es­siert Sie auch:

»The Free Bees« on 9/11.
They believe that this music video has the poten­tial to reach a large audi­ence and as a work of info­tain­ment is amu­sing, infor­ma­tive and thought provoking....

A Happy New Sus­tainable Year!
The Story of Stuff will take you on a pro­vo­ca­tive tour....

»Lea­ding To War.«
Inzwi­schen kom­men immer mehr Machen­schaf­ten der US-Regierung ans Licht, mit denen sie in unge­ahn­tem Umfang Des­in­for­ma­tion betrieb....