Of White Washing & Boycotts

Now that Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip is nearly complete, I suspect I will be reading more articles and opinion pieces (just like this one from the Toronto Star) which attempt to white wash Fatah of all responsibility for the civil strife in the Gaza Strip. This Toronto Star article rightly reports on the behaviour of Hamas in the Gaza Strip but strangely omits listing Fatah’s culpability from the very uncivil strife within Gaza. Reading this piece one could get the idea that Fatah members have not been busy kidnapping or throwing Hamas members off buildings as well in the Strip.

And before long I expect to read some twit of a pundit suggest that the international economic foreign aid embargo of the Hamas lead Palestinian Authority lies at the heart of the conflict rather than Fatah’s refusal to bend to the will of the Palestinian electorate and share power with Hamas. So as a public service announcement, I want to remind readers of the Arutz Sheva report based on figures supplied by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

According to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), donations to the Hamas-led PA from foreign countries have risen by almost 300 percent in 2006, totaling $900 million – as opposed to $349 million the previous year. The sharp increase came despite the international boycott of the PA.

According to the report, both Arab and Western countries increased their donations, channeling them through an account known as the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) and the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Let me recap - foreign aid tripled. I should be so boycotted.