Israel-Palestine: An Economic Platform for the Peace Process?

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Secretary-General of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria, signed an agreement on Tuesday paving the way for Israel to become the 32nd member of  the OECD this May.

Israeli President Shimon Peres stated that membership in the organization would enable Israel to show the world its technological and scientific ability.

However, a West Jerusalem official was cautious: "In politics, nothing is final until it's final, and today there are more countries angry with Israel." Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi urged the OECD to reject Israel's request for membership, saying state-led discrimination against the Arab sector ran counter to the group's regulations. On the economic side, the OECD is concerned about the country's high level of national debt relative to gross domestic product, as well as its heavy spending on security.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad received 158 million euros from the European Union as part of the 500 million euros in  aid to the Palestinians for 2010. However, the EU representative to the Palestinian Authority, Christian Burger, warned PA that this support would not continue without clear progress in the peace process with Israel.

UPDATED Israel: Loyalty, Lives, and the Arab Population

UPDATE 7 January: The bill proposing that the state enforce equal allocation of land to Jews and Arabs was not only rejected by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation but also by the Knesset on Wednesday.

Therefore, the Reception Committees of Israeli Communities can decide who will reside in their towns and can prevent Israeli Arabs from living in the same town.

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On Sunday, the Ministerial Legislation Committee of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, discussed a bill for legislators to swear a "loyalty oath" to the Jewish character of Israel. At the end, the bill was passed to the coalition leaders due to the fear that the Labor Party would veto it.

The bill, proposed by Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem, would change the oath from "I pledge loyalty to the State of Israel," to "I pledge loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, democratic state, and to its symbols and values". Rotem explained the aim of the proposal: "It is to make sure MKs are loyal to Israel as a Jewish state. Anyone who doesn't want to be faithful should not be an MK."

The bill emerged after MK Taleb a-Sanaa (United Arab List-Ta'al) allowed, via his cellphone, Gaza leader Ismail Haniya to address the protesters at the Erez crossing of Israel. Rotem added:

Anyone who saw and heard recently remarks made be MKs [Taleb] A-Sana and [Jamal] Zehalka who vilified the defense minister and allowed the biggest enemy of the State of Israel to speak to the public via a mobile phone owned by the Knesset and the state, understands intuitively that there is a need to bring MKs to be loyal to the state.

More importantly, another bill proposing that the state enforce equal allocation of land to Jews and Arabs was rejected. The measure was intended to counter a bill, passed two weeks ago, which states that reception committees of Israeli communities can decide who will reside in their towns. The author of the bill, MK Ahmed Tibi, said:

Yet again, the Israeli government has proven that it is avoiding the principle of civil equality.... [The Government] ignores Arabs' rights, and hasn't approved the building of a new Arab village since 1948. The government failed at the challenge I placed before it, and that saddens me.

Since the foundation of the state, the Israel Lands Administration is solely used as Jewish land administration. The director of the Israel Lands Administration has used all the tactics, with the help of the Jewish Agency, to allocate state land only to Jews. Despite the bitter attempt over the decades, not even one Arab town has been established since the state's foundation. Therefore a bill must be passed which stipulates that the Israel Lands Administration will serve all the state's citizens without discrimination on religion or nationality, and will promise an equal allocation of land to better the Arab population of Israel.