By Jennifer Thompson

The August 29 signing of an agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel on education, health, taxation, social welfare and other issues is another step in the peace process. This agreement was preceded by an agreement on tourism, signed on August 9. Green Left Weekly spoke to Ali El-Khalili, managing editor of the Palestinian weekly, Jerusalem Times.

“From September 1”, he said, “education buildings, schools and everything in the West Bank, except East Jerusalem, were handed over.

“Now all the education issues are under the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] and all the Palestinian schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will start their first day [of the new school year] with the Palestinian flag on the school building. The boys and girls will sing the Palestinian national song, and they will commence classes about the Palestinian situation and about the peace process in the area.”

The Israelis are paying the salaries of the teachers only for one month. “Beginning in October, the PNA has to pay the salaries for about 18,000 school teachers. That's a lot and will be the biggest part of the Palestinian budget.

“Because of that, the Palestinian authority is asking the donor states to pay what they promised. The authority was promised by the Americans, Japanese, and Europeans about $250 million by the end of this year. According to Palestinian authority sources, what has been paid until now is less than $30 million.

“The donors say that the Palestinian authority should have a well-organised and managed system of finances. The PNA is insisting that everything is now okay with us, and those states should pay to the PECDAR [Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction]. Now we also have established a Finance Ministry with an appointed minister, so there is good Palestinian management established on this subject.”

Khalili is concerned by Israeli refusal to abide by dates set in the peace agreements. “The Israeli government and Mr Rabin himself have broken all the deadlines. In the Oslo agreement and the Cairo agreement and even in the Washington principles declaration, there were many fixed dates. For example, elections should have taken place in July 1994, but no elections have happened. The Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories was to start on April 13; they have not yet withdrawn from the West Bank.

“Rabin says there are no set dates for him. I think the Israelis are using [this issue] to exert heavy pressure on the Palestinian side. Last week, Rabin said the implementation of the empowerment in the West Bank will be delayed until the Palestinians try to stop the attacks of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and even on the borders of Gaza. More delaying in the peace process means more and more problems -- economic, social and educational, problems with health and water, problems all over.”

Another unresolved issue is the release of Palestinian prisoners.

“There are still 7000 prisoners, including women and children, including old men and women and also those who are ill. Every day, we have here in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins; inside the prisons there are hunger strikes. Families of those prisoners are suffering so much.

“On the other hand, those who have been released have not returned home. The Israelis forcibly send them to the Jericho area, and Jericho has become like a big prison. Jericho is a very small city with very limited food and water resources. It is surrounded by Israeli settlers and soldiers, and now with those thousands of prisoners inside, it is really a dangerous situation.”

Khalili believes the Israeli government is trying to provoke divisions in the Palestinian population. “They want the Palestinian population to demonstrate against the PNA, for example, to provoke problems inside the Palestinian society. They cannot succeed in this because we do understand our PNA is facing a difficult situation.”

Hamas and its militia al Qassam have publicly called for talks with the PNA. “The PNA, Arafat and others accepted this immediately, and appreciate it. I think there is now some kind of dialogue between the PNA and all the opposition parties: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front.

“There is an example of this kind of dialogue in Jericho itself: a new committee formed to control the city. That committee is composed of Fateh, Hamas, Fida, Islamic Jihad and other opposition parties. The opposition parties want to participate in the civilian and the social issues under the PNA. At the same time, they are standing in opposition to it on the political question.”

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