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No-win: Israeli free training, loans, and grants to Palestinians are an "attack” on young Palestinians, leading to “Israelization”

Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus  |

This is a textbook example of Israel's no-win predicament:

The PA’s standard libel is that Israel is deliberately trying to harm Palestinians and at other times Israel is criticized by the PA for allegedly not taking care of Palestinians.

But now when Israel has created a special program to create economic opportunities for Palestinians it is being criticized for its “attack” that is causing “Israelization” among Palestinian youth. For Israel it’s a tragic no-win.

When a Palestinian training supervisor of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Jerusalem was interviewed about her organization’s initiatives to help young Palestinian school drop-outs and unemployed by offering them training courses, she lashed out at Israel for offering “free training, loans, and grants” to young Palestinians “like crazy.” She criticized the “competition from the Israeli institutions,” describing it as “an attack” that leads to “Israelization” of the young Palestinians:

Official PA TV host: “The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Jerusalem provides training courses for [Palestinian] residents of Jerusalem to help them financially… The free training courses are for those who have dropped out of school, all those who have lost their jobs, and the unemployed… There is a political aspect to the matter, since you see what is happening in the capital: [Israeli] attacks and fighting against the Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem” …

YWCA training supervisor Mai Amira:“ Let me tell you about competition from the Israeli institutions, which are giving free training, loans, and grants like crazy to the young Palestinians. This is an indirect attack. It leads to connecting the young Palestinians to Israelization - professionally, intellectually, and financially.”

[Official PA TV, Good Morning Jerusalem, Feb. 5, 2021]

The words of Mai Amira echo the many statements by PA officials against “normalization” with Israel. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA officials actively speak out against any form of normal relations with Israel, calling it treason.

This is an even more extreme example. It is not only normal relations between Palestinians and Israelis but it is 100% beneficial for Palestinian youth at Israel’s expense. And yet Israel is condemned. According to the general Palestinian narrative Israel is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t!

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