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/ 18 October 2006
The rape charges faced by Israeli President Moshe Katsav are the latest, and most serious, in a string of scandals to embroil the nation’s politicians, signalling the erosion of honest government to some, proof of a thriving democracy to others. "Today, more and more, civil servants have the notion that anything can be done as along as you’re not caught," says Sullam Eli, director general of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.
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/ 10 October 2006
When hundreds of Fatah gunmen paraded past his West Bank supermarket last week, Mohammad Zahi stared unbelieving at their sparkling black M16 assault rifles. In years past, gunmen in similar military displays waved ageing Kalashnikovs, the cheaper and cruder Soviet-designed rifle common in the Palestinian territories and much of the Arab world.
Wearing a green Hamas headband, waving a Hamas flag, swinging a Kalashnikov and chanting for Israel’s demise, Bassem Shorah looks to be a prototypical Palestinian militant. His olive green shirt, however, tells a different story. It’s a spot-on replica of those worn by soldiers in the United States Army, replete with combat patches and unit designations.
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At a rickety roadside café on the outskirts of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian football fans crowd a small TV screen watching the United States lose to the Czech Republic. When the screen goes fuzzy, the half dozen onlookers — stricken with World Cup fever — shout in protest.
Ten-year-old Hossam Abu Hashish smiles proudly as he lays out a pile of rusted steel shrapnel on the floor of his single-room home in northern Gaza. "I have a good collection," he says. "But it’s not the best in the village. My uncle’s is bigger."
He holds up a piece of twisted metal the length of his forearm. It has edges sharp enough to cut glass.
The donor-starved Palestinian Authority may cease to function if government employees continue to go without salaries for much longer, the World Bank warned in a new report released on Monday. Civil servants will simply down tools and discipline in the ranks of the security services could well collapse if pay cheques are not forthcoming, the Washington-based body said.