2019 Activities

Outgoing government turns its back on civil society in spite of current Israeli piracy

Outgoing government turns its back on civil society in spite of current Israeli piracy

Israel has increased the scale of attacks against the Palestinian people. By controlling and plundering Palestinian funds and clearance revenues, Israel is attempting to blackmail and crack on Palestinians and subjugate the Palestinian government. This has been evidenced recently in Israel’s decision to seize NIS 500 million of Palestinian funds, allegedly because this money was paid to the families of prisoners, martyrs, and injured citizens.

Ahead of this Israeli attack, the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency had launched a large-scale community advocacy and accountability campaign, calling for a public debate on the 2019 Budget Proposal. The Team initiated the campaign towards the end of 2018, but decided to halt it on 17 February 2019 when the Israeli occupying authorities expropriated Palestinian clearance revenues. This unjust decision affects all Palestinians, including both the government and the people. It necessitates national unity and solidarity to challenge Israel’s piracy.

In this context, the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency published a position paper on 23 February 2019, stating that “[a]ddressing and managing this crisis requires a concerted effort and engagement by Palestinian citizens, civil society, parties, experts, academicians, and Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency in order to take action and consolidate Palestinian citizens’ perseverance. The Palestinian government should adopt a more open and participatory approach. The government should launch community dialogues to respond to this crisis, bring an end to Israel’s pillage of Palestinian funds, and ensure that this action is not repeated. In partnership with the stakeholders mentioned above, the Palestinian government should establish a crisis unit to cope with the consequences of the Israeli decision. It needs to embrace the principle of real partnership in the decision-making process.”

The Palestinian government has not given any weight to this recommendation. On the contrary, the government has completely excluded the civil society. Although the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency suspended its campaign and set aside the government and Minister of Finance’s gross inattention to priorities of the Palestinian civil society, the government is managing the situation as if we were living in a free country and under normal conditions. The Team insists on the importance of concerting efforts and moving beyond the approach to monopoly and exclusion, which has been firmly established in the mindset, policies and practices of those in charge of public finance and public administration. The Team also stresses the need to fulfil the pledges made by the government in the National Policy Agenda, namely, a more open and inclusive government, and to bridge the gap with the current reality.

The outgoing government continued to exclude the civil society. It started secret consultations to take dangerous and unprecedented measures to confront Israeli actions. To this effect, the government decided to reduce the compulsory reserve imposed by the Palestine Monetary Authority on banks in order to support government liquidity, enable more lending to government, and provide access to borrowing from Jordanian banks with branches in Palestine. This will increase the public debt burden for the Palestinian people, who already live under occupation. Currently, public debt is well over NIS 15 billion, including private sector arrears and debts owed by the pension fund. The Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency is concerned that this would allow room for blackmail, subversion, and subjugation. As it manages the current crisis and bears heavy responsibilities, the government must seek support from citizens, representative institutions, and civil society.

Against this background, the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency announces it will proceed with the campaign that rejects Israel’s piracy. The Team will continue to exert pressure on the government to ensure a partnership-based action and decision-making process, coordinate positions, and distribute roles with the civil society. The government is waging a war on all the Palestinian people. The consequences of any decisions made now will reflect on the Palestinians’ lives and future. The impact will not be limited to a small group of people, who manage public finance and public administration.

The Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency is also of the view that the government should immediately rationalise expenditure both realistically and openly. It should eliminate all expenditures associated with recreation, motorcades, travels, telecommunications, promotions, vehicles, offices, furniture, appointments, utilities, etc. It should continue to channel investments to consolidate citizens’ perseverance and livelihoods, particularly in education, health, agriculture, and social development sectors. These are the topmost priority at the current stage.

The Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency still believes that late approval of the 2019 Public Budget Law is absolutely unjustified. The government should have finalised consultations and prepared the budget towards the end of October 2018. The budget should have been duly approved by the end of 2018, i.e., before the outgoing government resigned and Israel expropriated a portion of the Palestinian clearance revenues. Contrary to the law, the government uses a legally prescribed exception as if it were an acquired right to justify late approval of the public budget.

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