PALESTINIANS WIN BACKING FOR STATEHOOD BY CONTAINING GRAFT

Cleaner government in Ramallah and law and order on the streets of Jenin may be doing more to bring Palestine into the community of nation

Written by

Published on

August 17, 2022

Cleaner government in Ramallah and law and order on the streets of Jenin may be doing more to bring Palestine into the community of nation states than peace talks with Israel, officials and analysts said after Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil moved to recognise Palestine as an independent state. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has spent the last three years cracking down on crime and corruption, building government institutions and ensuring security, laying the way for a state-in-the-making that meets international norms, said Ghassan Al-Khatib, a government spokesman and director of the Palestinian Media Centre. He said that has encouraged countries that might have been reluctant in the past to support independence. “The performance of the Palestinians on the ground has allowed for an increase in support for Palestinians independence. We’re talking about security, law and order, reforms,” he was reported as saying. Full independence has yet to be achieved, but PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been leading a drive to end corruption and restore order to the West Bank. A survey of Transparency International, which monitors public perceptions of corruption around the world, reported on December 8 that 59% of Palestinians polled believed corruption had decreased in the past three years.