Donor Opium. The Impact of International Aid to Palestine
The aid-dependency is a phenomenon well known to both European Roma and Palestinians. While the impact of the donors' money on Roma communities has never been thoroughly studied, it is not the case with the Palestinians. In 2011 Mariam Shahin and George Azar produced a documentary film called ‘Donor Opium: The impact of international aid to Palestine’. The movie features Palestinian criticisms of the externally funded “development” that does not usually make its way into the mainstream media.
For more than twenty years the international donor institutions have financially supported Palestinian infrastructure development, the economy, public employees’ salaries, health and education, social welfare, as well as the majority of local civil society organizations with regards to human rights, tolerance, women rights etc. About $ 9 billion dollars has flowed into the West Bank since the start of the Oslo process in late 1993, and yet 30% of Palestinians are still classified as poor, and half of them are classified as very poor. In fact the Palestinians have been de-developed with the help of the international aid. The foreign aid is described as “opium” because it causes a sort of ‘drug-addiction’ to donors’ money. It is seen as a tool used by foreign countries to subdue the Palestinians to the point where they no more resist the Israeli authorities in the occupied territories.