Universal declaration against besieging nations issued in Gaza

[P F Tinmore]

"We've money on shopping malls, but nothing on development. We've been wasting and stealing money since 1994, but, luckily, we've jews nearby to blame our asses on."

The shopping mall is private enterprise.

Run by some hamas-approved sultan, paying for hamas "protection", of course.But agriculture, of course, does, and gazabadians are mismanaging the Gaza aquifer since Arafat through hamas by overpumping it courtecy our semi-feudal agricultural practices so much that saline water has penetrated inland ruining orange groves close to the shore. And those sad losers shop around for money, sympathy and and brain aid, luckily, they've jews around to blame their asses on.

Read posts 7 & 8 above.

It's the Economist being idiotically overoptimistic about what's not there, shitt excepting, of course. Nothing actual.

The PA (Arafat, Abbas, Fayyad, etc.) was set up by Israel/US to be the oligarchs of Palestine. They get rich while their people eat dirt. That is why they lost the elections.

No problem, of course, they are free to decide what pile of shit to step onto, it's their right.

You have a serious reading comprehension problem.

 

[JStone]

"We've money on shopping malls, but nothing on development. We've been wasting and stealing money since 1994, but, luckily, we've jews nearby to blame our asses on."

The shopping mall is private enterprise.

Run by some hamas-approved sultan, paying for hamas "protection", of course.But agriculture, of course, does, and gazabadians are mismanaging the Gaza aquifer since Arafat through hamas by overpumping it courtecy our semi-feudal agricultural practices so much that saline water has penetrated inland ruining orange groves close to the shore. And those sad losers shop around for money, sympathy and and brain aid, luckily, they've jews around to blame their asses on.

Read posts 7 & 8 above.

It's the Economist being idiotically overoptimistic about what's not there, shitt excepting, of course. Nothing actual.

The PA (Arafat, Abbas, Fayyad, etc.) was set up by Israel/US to be the oligarchs of Palestine. They get rich while their people eat dirt. That is why they lost the elections.

No problem, of course, they are free to decide what pile of shit to step onto, it's their right.

Gazabadians

Guy Milliere, Eminent Professor of History and Political Science, Sorbonne, Paris

No one had heard of a Palestinian people before the mid-1960s. They did not exist. Israel under the British Mandate until Israel' s Independence in 1948 was called Palestine. All Jews who were born there until i948 had the word « Palestine » stamped on their passports. The current Palestinians are those Arabs who, for a variety of reasons, decided to leave the land during the 1947 War of Independence, when five countries – Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked the 600,000 people in the fledgling state of Israel the day after its birth, hoping to kill it in the crib.

http://www.dreuz.info/2011/08/the-war-against-israel-goes-on-by-guy-milliere/

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJjm5K07V0]Who are the Palestinians? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[docmauser1]

Every time rains hit Gaza it swims in it own shitt, literally, because the "government" (mis)managers don't do shitt about drainage.

The assholes in Israel will not allow the materials required to fix or upgrade sewage plants.

The only art hamasabadians, other palistanians and other general arabs have mastered is an art of lies and excuses - they have all the materials for shoping malls, villas, hamas child brainwashing camps and jihad universities, but none for "sewage plants"! It's evident that shit-swimming gazabadians bring home brownie-points in agitprop.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Recent surveys by leading pollsters conclude..

Is that the same pollster who predicted that Fatah was going to sweep the elections in 2006?:cla2::clp2::cla2:

Loading...

Hamas police proceeded to close a water park in Gaza due to the presence of "degrading and unethical gender mixing" according to the justification reported in the news. Subsequent information about this incident revealed that the citizens who were removed from the water park, following the Hamas decisions, had just sat down to break their fast [during the holy month of Ramadan], and those evicted from this water park included a charity organization that looked after orphans.

The media in our region only briefly reported this news, mainly because we do not understand how breaking one's fast during Ramadan could be considered "degrading and unethical." What exactly is the criteria for this?

In any case, this news did not gain a lot of media attention in the Arab world. In fact, those media outlets that covered this story included it on the inside pages of their newspapers or as part of a news round-up, and that is when it was reported at all.

Yet the Gaza Water Park closure is not an isolated incident, in fact similar events occur routinely [in the Gaza Strip]. Only a few weeks ago, gunmen burned down a summer camp for children organized by UNRWA because young boys and girls would be mixing together, and there was a possibility of them swimming together.

Indeed, the siege imposed upon Gaza, and the continuing strain that this has had on its people, has not prevented Hamas from overseeing ‘public morals’. For example, Hamas ensures that women's clothing stores respect the principle of modesty with regards to the mannequins on display at the shop's entrances, with the shop's who fail to do so being subject to punishments. The hardships suffered by the people of Gaza has not prevented Hamas from ensuring that women do not smoke shisha in public places, or that men do not work in female clothing shops.

And who could forget how the Ministry of Education in Gaza banned the book ‘Speak, Bird, Speak Again’ which was a collection of Palestinian folk tales, saying that this contained "shameless sexual expressions?"

What is happening in Gaza is certainly far from an accident, or a miscalculation on the part of Hamas, and in fact this represents the essence of the Hamas movement and its true religious viewpoint. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip through force of arms, and it is impervious to being held to account for its actions. One cannot question its daily practices, or its oppression of the people of Gaza as Hamas practices tyranny in the name of resistance, and hides behind slogans.

Hamas does not tire from changing the features of the Palestinian cause, and obscuring its humanitarian aspects by continuing to obscure and eradicate Palestine's secular history and reality. Those who are united in support for Gaza and its people do not extend their solidarity towards the subsequent injustices inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Hamas, who have seized control of their lives. The means of resisting the Israeli blockade [of Gaza] are well known, and are sometimes productive, however as for the darkness that is being imposed upon the lives of the people of Gaza by Hamas, this cannot be dealt with whilst people are saying that they are in solidarity with the people of Palestine. What was inspiring with regards the Freedom Flotilla that came to challenge the Israeli blockade was that this also challenged the blockade that is being imposed by Hamas upon the lives of the people of Gaza.

When we read the daily reports about what is happening in Gaza under the shadow of Hamas, we cannot help but recall the final verse of the last poem written about Gaza by [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish before his death:

“If we can’t find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hands”

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVWk8qjsU8]Hamas Imposing Sharia Law In Gaza - YouTube[/ame]

You need to watch your own video. The cover photo shows a provocative dress in a store window. In several places it shows women walking freely without a hijab.

If you want to show that Hamas is imposing Sharia law you need a better piece of propaganda.

 

[JStone]

Is that the same pollster who predicted that Fatah was going to sweep the elections in 2006?:cla2::clp2::cla2:

Loading...

Hamas police proceeded to close a water park in Gaza due to the presence of "degrading and unethical gender mixing" according to the justification reported in the news. Subsequent information about this incident revealed that the citizens who were removed from the water park, following the Hamas decisions, had just sat down to break their fast [during the holy month of Ramadan], and those evicted from this water park included a charity organization that looked after orphans.

The media in our region only briefly reported this news, mainly because we do not understand how breaking one's fast during Ramadan could be considered "degrading and unethical." What exactly is the criteria for this?

In any case, this news did not gain a lot of media attention in the Arab world. In fact, those media outlets that covered this story included it on the inside pages of their newspapers or as part of a news round-up, and that is when it was reported at all.

Yet the Gaza Water Park closure is not an isolated incident, in fact similar events occur routinely [in the Gaza Strip]. Only a few weeks ago, gunmen burned down a summer camp for children organized by UNRWA because young boys and girls would be mixing together, and there was a possibility of them swimming together.

Indeed, the siege imposed upon Gaza, and the continuing strain that this has had on its people, has not prevented Hamas from overseeing ‘public morals’. For example, Hamas ensures that women's clothing stores respect the principle of modesty with regards to the mannequins on display at the shop's entrances, with the shop's who fail to do so being subject to punishments. The hardships suffered by the people of Gaza has not prevented Hamas from ensuring that women do not smoke shisha in public places, or that men do not work in female clothing shops.

And who could forget how the Ministry of Education in Gaza banned the book ‘Speak, Bird, Speak Again’ which was a collection of Palestinian folk tales, saying that this contained "shameless sexual expressions?"

What is happening in Gaza is certainly far from an accident, or a miscalculation on the part of Hamas, and in fact this represents the essence of the Hamas movement and its true religious viewpoint. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip through force of arms, and it is impervious to being held to account for its actions. One cannot question its daily practices, or its oppression of the people of Gaza as Hamas practices tyranny in the name of resistance, and hides behind slogans.

Hamas does not tire from changing the features of the Palestinian cause, and obscuring its humanitarian aspects by continuing to obscure and eradicate Palestine's secular history and reality. Those who are united in support for Gaza and its people do not extend their solidarity towards the subsequent injustices inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Hamas, who have seized control of their lives. The means of resisting the Israeli blockade [of Gaza] are well known, and are sometimes productive, however as for the darkness that is being imposed upon the lives of the people of Gaza by Hamas, this cannot be dealt with whilst people are saying that they are in solidarity with the people of Palestine. What was inspiring with regards the Freedom Flotilla that came to challenge the Israeli blockade was that this also challenged the blockade that is being imposed by Hamas upon the lives of the people of Gaza.

When we read the daily reports about what is happening in Gaza under the shadow of Hamas, we cannot help but recall the final verse of the last poem written about Gaza by [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish before his death:

“If we can’t find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hands”

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVWk8qjsU8]Hamas Imposing Sharia Law In Gaza - YouTube[/ame]

You need to watch your own video. The cover photo shows a provocative dress in a store window. In several places it shows women walking freely without a hijab.

If you want to show that Hamas is imposing Sharia law you need a better piece of propaganda.

http://asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=22115

Hamas police proceeded to close a water park in Gaza due to the presence of "degrading and unethical gender mixing" according to the justification reported in the news. Subsequent information about this incident revealed that the citizens who were removed from the water park, following the Hamas decisions, had just sat down to break their fast [during the holy month of Ramadan], and those evicted from this water park included a charity organization that looked after orphans.

The media in our region only briefly reported this news, mainly because we do not understand how breaking one's fast during Ramadan could be considered "degrading and unethical." What exactly is the criteria for this?

In any case, this news did not gain a lot of media attention in the Arab world. In fact, those media outlets that covered this story included it on the inside pages of their newspapers or as part of a news round-up, and that is when it was reported at all.

Yet the Gaza Water Park closure is not an isolated incident, in fact similar events occur routinely [in the Gaza Strip]. Only a few weeks ago, gunmen burned down a summer camp for children organized by UNRWA because young boys and girls would be mixing together, and there was a possibility of them swimming together.

Indeed, the siege imposed upon Gaza, and the continuing strain that this has had on its people, has not prevented Hamas from overseeing ‘public morals’. For example, Hamas ensures that women's clothing stores respect the principle of modesty with regards to the mannequins on display at the shop's entrances, with the shop's who fail to do so being subject to punishments. The hardships suffered by the people of Gaza has not prevented Hamas from ensuring that women do not smoke shisha in public places, or that men do not work in female clothing shops.

And who could forget how the Ministry of Education in Gaza banned the book ‘Speak, Bird, Speak Again’ which was a collection of Palestinian folk tales, saying that this contained "shameless sexual expressions?"

What is happening in Gaza is certainly far from an accident, or a miscalculation on the part of Hamas, and in fact this represents the essence of the Hamas movement and its true religious viewpoint. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip through force of arms, and it is impervious to being held to account for its actions. One cannot question its daily practices, or its oppression of the people of Gaza as Hamas practices tyranny in the name of resistance, and hides behind slogans.

Hamas does not tire from changing the features of the Palestinian cause, and obscuring its humanitarian aspects by continuing to obscure and eradicate Palestine's secular history and reality. Those who are united in support for Gaza and its people do not extend their solidarity towards the subsequent injustices inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Hamas, who have seized control of their lives. The means of resisting the Israeli blockade [of Gaza] are well known, and are sometimes productive, however as for the darkness that is being imposed upon the lives of the people of Gaza by Hamas, this cannot be dealt with whilst people are saying that they are in solidarity with the people of Palestine. What was inspiring with regards the Freedom Flotilla that came to challenge the Israeli blockade was that this also challenged the blockade that is being imposed by Hamas upon the lives of the people of Gaza.

When we read the daily reports about what is happening in Gaza under the shadow of Hamas, we cannot help but recall the final verse of the last poem written about Gaza by [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish before his death:

“If we can’t find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hands”

 

[P F Tinmore]

Hamas ensures that women's clothing stores respect the principle of modesty with regards to the mannequins on display at the shop's entrances,

or that men do not work in female clothing shops.

Gaza starts at 18:20

 

[docmauser1]

In truth, Arafat does not want them either. For they would undermine his control, achieved through a combination of police surveillance and money power.

Indeed, see post 13 above.

And nothing has changed since Arafat, of course, because hamas is a muslim charity and operates like one, maintaining a loyal base of electorate dependents on a dole. Same as hizballah. The very idea of independent hi-tec farming and profits thereof is anathema.

 

[JStone]

Hamas Bans Gaza Students Studying Abroad

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have banned eight teenage students with scholarships to study in the U.S. from leaving the territory, a Palestinian rights group said Wednesday.

The move appeared to be part of an intensified Hamas campaign against independent groups that they view as a challenge to their rule and against activities that believe promote a Western lifestyle.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the eight students were granted AMIDEAST scholarships, a program that educates talented teenagers from the Middle East and North Africa for a year in the U.S. At the end of the year, students return to their home countries to finish their education. The students were granted scholarships based on their academic achievements.

In a statement, the rights group said Hamas' education minister rejected a travel request by the teenager's parents for "social and cultural reasons." It also accused Hamas of breaching the parents' right to educate their children as they choose.

Hamas would not confirm the order, much as it has in the past with similar orders travel bans on Gaza residents.

But the parents of 15-year-old Aboud Alshatari said their son was traveling to the border Wednesday when Hamas police turned him away, saying the Education Ministry refused to let him leave Gaza. Alshatari was slated to attend school in North Carolina.

The ban comes a day after a network of aid groups in Gaza criticized Hamas for forcing aid workers and employees of civil society groups to register with them before traveling for work outside the Gaza Strip. And last week, Hamas shut down the U.S.-financed International Medical Corps after it refused to submit to a Hamas audit.

The Iranian-backed Hamas overran Gaza from the secular Palestinian Fatah party in bloody street battles in 2007. Since then, Hamas has slowly imposed its radical interpretation of Islam on residents of the Gaza Strip — a world view that is even more stern than what traditionally religious conservative Gazan's follow.

Other Hamas crackdowns include trying to ban male barbers from cutting women's hair and forbidding women from smoking in public and outlawing scantly clad female mannequins.

Hamas Bans Gaza Students Studying Abroad - ABC News

They're young, they're smart and they are Gaza's future generation. These teenage high school students won a scholarship to study in the /United States for one year, but the Hamas government decided against letting them travel to America"

"I feel so frustrated, so sad.and so angry because we have worked really hard to get this scholarship. It's not an easy scholarship to get."

"This scholarship means like a new door to my life, a new experience, a new adventure, to meeting new people, to know their culture..."

Human rights groups say there is no reason for Hamas's decision and that it's a violation of their basic rights"

"No one has the right to prevent us from going to the US to have a better education and a better life"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8VWza6lnKM]HAMAS BANS STUDENTS ON SCHOLARSHIP FROM TRAVELING TO USA - YouTube[/ame]

 

[docmauser1]

The shopping mall is private enterprise.

Run by some hamas-approved sultan, paying for hamas "protection", of course.But agriculture, of course, does, and gazabadians are mismanaging the Gaza aquifer since Arafat through hamas by overpumping it courtecy our semi-feudal agricultural practices so much that saline water has penetrated inland ruining orange groves close to the shore. And those sad losers shop around for money, sympathy and and brain aid, luckily, they've jews around to blame their asses on.It's the Economist being idiotically overoptimistic about what's not there, shitt excepting, of course. Nothing actual.

The PA (Arafat, Abbas, Fayyad, etc.) was set up by Israel/US to be the oligarchs of Palestine. They get rich while their people eat dirt. That is why they lost the elections.

No problem, of course, they are free to decide what pile of shit to step onto, it's their right.

You have a serious reading comprehension problem.

It's gazabadians and palistanians in general who have a serious problem of picking what pile of shit to step onto, because of a rather limited choice of piles, but it's their right of choice, and we should respect it.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Amideast did no follow proper procedures.

Perhaps they should try that.

 

[JStone]

Amideast did no follow proper procedures.

Perhaps they should try that.

Rights group: Hamas ban on study abroad students 'illegal'

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights denounced Wednesday the decision by Hamas to ban Gaza scholarship students from studying in the United States.

"PCHR believes that this decision contradicts basic human rights standards, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," a statement said.

The rights group said that the students were banned from traveling for "social and cultural reasons" by the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip.

Eight students from Gaza schools had won scholarships through the YES program run by AMIDEAST, having been chosen on academic ability after a year long selection process. The students would have spent one year studying in the United States.

"This Decision means also that a number of our best students will be deprived of benefiting from scholarships to study abroad while we are in a dire need to communicate with the outside world, break the isolation and blockade imposed on our people and develop our capacities," PCHR added.

The rights group had made intensive efforts, it said, to lobby Hamas-run ministries to allow the students to travel but were informed that the decision to prevent students leaving had not changed.

Maan News Agency: Rights group: Hamas ban on study abroad students 'illegal'

 

[P F Tinmore]

Run by some hamas-approved sultan, paying for hamas "protection", of course.But agriculture, of course, does, and gazabadians are mismanaging the Gaza aquifer since Arafat through hamas by overpumping it courtecy our semi-feudal agricultural practices so much that saline water has penetrated inland ruining orange groves close to the shore. And those sad losers shop around for money, sympathy and and brain aid, luckily, they've jews around to blame their asses on.It's the Economist being idiotically overoptimistic about what's not there, shitt excepting, of course. Nothing actual.No problem, of course, they are free to decide what pile of shit to step onto, it's their right.

You have a serious reading comprehension problem.

It's gazabadians and palistanians in general who have a serious problem of picking what pile of shit to step onto, because of a rather limited choice of piles, but it's their right of choice, and we should respect it.

They voted out the known crooks and voted in those with a better reputation.

Not acceptable to Israel and the US who have a preference for crooks.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Amideast did no follow proper procedures.

Perhaps they should try that.

Rights group: Hamas ban on study abroad students 'illegal'

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights denounced Wednesday the decision by Hamas to ban Gaza scholarship students from studying in the United States.

"PCHR believes that this decision contradicts basic human rights standards, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," a statement said.

The rights group said that the students were banned from traveling for "social and cultural reasons" by the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip.

Eight students from Gaza schools had won scholarships through the YES program run by AMIDEAST, having been chosen on academic ability after a year long selection process. The students would have spent one year studying in the United States.

"This Decision means also that a number of our best students will be deprived of benefiting from scholarships to study abroad while we are in a dire need to communicate with the outside world, break the isolation and blockade imposed on our people and develop our capacities," PCHR added.

The rights group had made intensive efforts, it said, to lobby Hamas-run ministries to allow the students to travel but were informed that the decision to prevent students leaving had not changed.

Maan News Agency: Rights group: Hamas ban on study abroad students 'illegal'

Those clowns need to follow the rules.

 

[JStone]

You have a serious reading comprehension problem.

It's gazabadians and palistanians in general who have a serious problem of picking what pile of shit to step onto, because of a rather limited choice of piles, but it's their right of choice, and we should respect it.

They voted out the known crooks and voted in those with a better reputation.

Not acceptable to Israel and the US who have a preference for crooks.

Time Magazine: Globally Isolated and Economically Crippled: Why Hamas is Losing Gaza

Besieged by Israel and the West, which regards it as a terrorist group, and cut off from the Palestinian majority in the West Bank, Hamas has little to offer beyond its jihadist credentials — and the promise of clean government. So it's hardly surprising that the party has been rapidly losing ground in its stronghold. Recent surveys by leading pollsters conclude that if elections were held in Gaza today, Hamas, an acronym in Arabic for the Islamic Resistance Movement, would not be returned to power. A June poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that Hamas would get just 28% of the vote, a steep decline from the 44% plurality it won in 2006.

Especially alarming for the Islamists is a precipitous drop in support for the party among Gaza's youth: two-thirds of the population is under 25. In a March survey taken in the afterglow of the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square that led to the ouster of Egypt's dictator, Hosni Mubarak, more than 60% of Gazans age 18 to 27 said they too would support public demonstrations demanding regime change.

Soon after that poll, 10,000 turned out at a rally to voice a more modest demand — that Hamas end the bloody rift with Fatah, the secular party it bested six years ago. Hamas sent thugs to break up the demonstration. "We came out to say the people should be united, and they attack us!" says Shadi Hassan, 22, who lives in a refugee camp and sells cigarettes. "We are suffocated, and we need regime change."


Even party stalwarts agree that they've lost the street. "The majority of people want a change, yes," says Ahmed Yusuf, a former deputy foreign minister for Hamas who now runs a think tank called House of Wisdom. "They are not happy with the way Hamas is governing Gaza. Wherever you look is miserable life." Forty percent of Gazans live in poverty. The rate of unemployment is approaching 50%, among the highest in the world, and is likely to worsen as the population of 1.6 million doubles in the next 20 years. "Because they believe in God, they don't think a lot about the future," says Gaza economist Omar Shaban, who heads the Pal-Think think tank. "You won't find someone in Hamas who is thinking about 2045. They say, 'Oh, God will provide.'"

Globally Isolated and Economically Crippled: Why Hamas is Losing Gaza - TIME

 

[P F Tinmore]

If these people were serious about education they should get Israel to allow students to study abroad, but they don't.

Hypocrites.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Why would Israel allow students to leave Gaza to go to this one particular school and no other?

There is something they are not telling us.

 

[JStone]

Why would Israel allow students to leave Gaza to go to this one particular school and no other?

There is something they are not telling us.

 

[P F Tinmore]

You people will run with something that makes no sense if it fits your propaganda.

 

[JStone]

You people will run with something that makes no sense if it fits your propaganda.

Arabs just run their culture into the ground while their successful Jewish cousins run the world.

BBC: How Israel Became A High-Tech Hub BBC News - How Israel turned itself into a high-tech hub

Tiny Israel, a country embroiled in conflicts for decades, has managed to transform itself from a stretch of farmland into a high-tech wonder

Israel currently has almost 4,000 active technology start-ups - more than any other country outside the United States, according to Israel Venture Capital Research Centre

In 2010 alone the flow of venture capital amounted to $884m (£558m).

The result: high-tech exports from Israel are valued at about $18.4bn a year, making up more than 45% of Israel's exports, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics

Israel is a world leader in terms of research and development spending as a percentage of the economy; it's top in both the number of start-ups and engineers as a proportion of the population; and it's first in per capita venture capital investment. Not bad for a country of some eight million people - fewer than, say, Moscow or New York.

Over just a few decades, Israeli start-ups have developed groundbreaking technologies in areas such as computing, clean technology and life sciences, to name a few.

The Economist Magazine: Arab World Self-Doomed To Failure

WHAT went wrong with the Arab world? Why is it so stuck behind the times? It is not an obviously unlucky region. Fatly endowed with oil, and with its people sharing a rich cultural, religious and linguistic heritage, it is faced neither with endemic poverty nor with ethnic conflict. But, with barely an exception, its autocratic rulers, whether presidents or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they can.

One in five Arabs still live on less than $2 a day. And, over the past 20 years, growth in income per head, at an annual rate of 0.5%, was lower than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. At this rate, it will take the average Arab 140 years to double his income, a target that some regions are set to reach in less than ten years. Stagnant growth, together with a fast-rising population, means vanishing jobs. Around 12m people, or 15% of the labour force, are already unemployed, and on present trends the number could rise to 25m by 2010.

Freedom. This deficit explains many of the fundamental things that are wrong with the Arab world: the survival of absolute autocracies; the holding of bogus elections; confusion between the executive and the judiciary (the report points out the close linguistic link between the two in Arabic); constraints on the media and on civil society; and a patriarchal, intolerant, sometimes suffocating social environment. The great wave of democratisation that has opened up so much of the world over the past 15 years seems to have left the Arabs untouched. Democracy is occasionally offered, but as a concession, not as a right. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are both sharply limited. Freedom House, an American-based monitor of political and civil rights, records that no Arab country has genuinely free media, and only three have “partly free”. The rest are not free

•Knowledge. “If God were to humiliate a human being,” wrote Imam Ali bin abi Taleb in the sixth century, “He would deny him knowledge.” Although the Arabs spend a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other developing region, it is not, it seems, well spent. The quality of education has deteriorated pitifully, and there is a severe mismatch between the labour market and the education system. Adult illiteracy rates have declined but are still very high: 65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all. One of the gravest results of their poor education is that the Arabs, who once led the world in science, are dropping ever further behind in scientific research and in information technology. Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6% of the population uses the Internet, and 1.2% have personal computers.

•Women's status. The one thing that every outsider knows about the Arab world is that it does not treat its women as full citizens. How can a society prosper when it stifles half its productive potential? After all, even though women's literacy rates have trebled in the past 30 years, one in every two Arab women still can neither read nor write. Their participation in their countries' political and economic life is the lowest in the world.

Arab development: Self-doomed to failure | The Economist

 

[P F Tinmore]

Israel bombs, bulldozes, or blockades everything the Palestinians do.

They were not on welfare before Israel.