Berlin 20-05-2010
Germany and the Palestinian authorities have embarked on a series of high-level talks with the goal of achieving a closer co-operation in economic and aid assistance areas.
The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of the FDP party, met today with Palestinian PM Fayyad in order to launch what has been dubbed the “German-Palestinian Steering Committee” in the first of what is planned as a series of regular future consultations.
Specifically they have discussed German participation in the construction of police stations and other infrastructure projects.
It is a rather odd emphasis for the German government to be spending aid – on police stations- especially because Palestine is presently split between two opposing factions and governments.
While meet with the Palestinians face-to-face is a positive step from the German government and should be lauded, by choosing one side over the other, Germany is fuelling the problems between the factions .
It could be argued that the Ramallah government in Gaza represents a larger part of the Palestinian people and is seen as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian resistance, while the German government’s choice for interlocutor seems to be the US and Egyptian backed PLO government which seems to have less legitimacy on the ground.
Westerwelle has pledging around 22 million Euro as a start to this year’s aid from Germany — €2 million of which will go to humanitarian assistance and €20 million for development projects.
Germany has historically provided circa 50 million Euro in annual assistance to the Palestinians.
Tags: Berlin, palestinians
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