Italy to host Palestinian fundraising conference (More money redirected to terrorists???)

AP/The Jerusalem Post ^ | 26 November 2003 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[anotherview]

Nov. 26, 2003
Italy to host Palestinian fundraising conference
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME

Italy will host an international donors conference for the Palestinians in mid-December, most likely Dec. 15-16, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Finance Minister Salam Fayad are expected to represent the Palestinian Authority, presenting the 2004 budget to donors at the Rome meeting, said the Palestinian envoy to Italy, Nimer Hammad.

Israel will probably send a delegation, but it's not clear yet at what level, a diplomatic official said in Rome. Italy has requested ministerial-level delegations.

The conference had been initially scheduled for November, but was postponed because of delays by the Palestinians in forming a new government.

The international community sends about US$1 billion a year to the Palestinians. The funds are used for humanitarian projects and help prop up the Palestinian Authority, which would otherwise cease to function.

The Palestinians will present their 2004 budget at the conference and make a pitch for additional money, although Hammad declined to say how much the Palestinians were seeking.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been proposing a "Marshall Plan" for the Palestinians for over a year, and says a proposal by the Group of Eight and European Union envisages a five-year, US$5 billion plan to reconstruct the Palestinian economy. Italy is currently president of the EU.

A Foreign Ministry official said the conference is not specifically linked to the Marshall Plan, but that "the two things go in the same direction."

"It is all part of the support for the 'road map"' peace plan for the Middle East, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

[zx2dragon]

Wouldn't the palis have an economy if a lot of it wasn't funneled to Swiss accounts and to terrorists? How many new homes or jobs could that money create?