Palestinian activist challenges anti-Israel campaign
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/284516-palestinian-activist-challenges-anti-israel-campaign
Bassem Eid, a veteran Palestinian Arab human rights activist, challenged many common claims about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a June 14, 2016 attended by more than 80 congressional staff members and interns. Eid, founder and director of the former Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, a non-profit organization based in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), offered his views on the Arab-Israeli conflict in a talk facilitated by the office of U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and sponsored by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).
Eid, who lived for many years in eastern Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp and now resides in Jericho, said that most Palestinian Arabs are “seeking dignity, not identity.” Their identity, he asserted, they have. What they lack, Eid elaborated, is leadership that can or wants to build opportunities for jobs, education and health care for themselves and their families. This concern for their individual and family welfare trumps current attention to diplomacy about a Palestinian state, Eid told his audience, which also included organizational representatives.
He pointed out that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules the West Bank, has received “billions in aid” from the international community, including the United States. However, the authority—in part due to corruption which Eid categorized as extending “far and wide” under the authority— “failed to create jobs for Palestinians.” In his opinion, the inability of the international community to hold the PA accountable for management of aid represents a clear “failure.”