Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Al-Monitor · 2013
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the PA's budget passed amid the Fatah-Hamas rift, covering only West Bank institutions — illustrating normalized governance absurdity, continued donor dependency, security sector's outsized share (30%+), and structural inability to fund development adequately.
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the PA's budget passed amid the Fatah-Hamas rift, covering only West Bank institutions — illustrating normalized governance…
Editorial summary — the full article is published by Al-Monitor and cannot be reproduced here. What follows is an account of the subject written afterwards, not the original text.
The Palestinian Authority's 2013 budget was passed despite the ongoing political rift between Fatah and Hamas — a rift that meant the budget applied only to West Bank-based PA institutions and not to Gaza, which has operated under a parallel Hamas administration since 2007. The passage of the budget under these conditions illustrated the normalized absurdity of Palestinian governance: a national budget for a national authority that governs only half its territory. The budget figures revealed the PA's continued financial dependence on donor assistance and clearance revenues, the outsized proportion of the security sector in total expenditure (over 30% in some years), and the structural inability to fund development expenditure at levels needed to reduce donor dependency. The 2013 budget debate also reflected the political tensions over public sector salaries, which represented the largest single expenditure category and were already subject to significant arrears.
Topic: Palestinian Economy — PA budget · political rift — Text © Al-Monitor — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source