Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Thank You North America | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

Thank you North America

The chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) went to the United States and Canada. He came out with political stands that are considered a positive development and returned with exactly $60 million, the total US and Canada donation to the Palestinian people.

Who can imagine a state as great as the United States, which knows the magnitude of the Palestinians” suffering and urgent needs under the occupation, donates an amount that is not enough to pay the Palestinian policemen”s salaries. The United States is known for its generosity when it pays, has allocated hundreds of billions for aid, and spends everyday more than $1 billion on defense. As to the rich, sparsely populated, resources rich Canada, it condescended and donated $10 million to the Palestine people.

Abu-Mazin was noble in dealing with this stinginess. He thanked the United States and Canada and said any aid, no matter how small it is, deserves gratitude and thanks. Abu-Mazin might have read the issue politically or considered it the start of larger future aid.

What makes a state as big as the united States donate this modest sum? Is it the fear of angering the other side? Is it a trial balloon to test the reactions? The United States is allocating huge budgets to improve its image in the Middle East and this was–and continues to be – a rare opportunity for donating a large sum of money to the PNA that helps it pay some of the accumulating bills in the occupied territories, from unemployment, to poverty, bad services, and to a housing crisis.

North America is the richest continent in the world and the one with most resources and wealth donates together $60million! To whom? To the chairman of a national authority who is leading a people inside the occupied territories who are having serious and real problems and need billions of dollars for development! It is an equation that deserves to be pondered!