Much controversy has arisen since the publication of an article by Emad Mekay entitled “World Bank: Palestinians Should Pay for Israeli Checkpoints,” suggesting the Palestinian National Authority fund the modernization and establishment of illegal Israeli checkpoints along the illegal Separation Wall, in order to allow Palestinian goods and workers to pass through inspection more speedily. According to Nigel Roberts, the World Bank's Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza, the article was misleading.

In December 2004 the World Bank issued the report Stagnation or Revival? Israeli Disengagement and Palestinian Economic Prospects, focusing on the need to improve the security environment in the Israeli/Palestinian territory. The study suggested Israel dismantle current restrictions and lift closures between on its state borders and in the Occupied Territories in order to revive the Palestinian economy.

After the release of the study, several statements and analyses have been made to interpret the significance of the project. Mekay’s article quoted Markus Kostner, the World Bank’s Country Programme Coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza, saying Israel requested financing for the proposed checkpoints, and that the World Bank would indirectly assist Israel through the project. Because of Israel’s economic status, it is not eligible for World Bank assistance.

As a result of the uproar and questions surrounding the World Bank’s political positioning in the conflict, based on the premise of economic development, the country director, Nigel Roberts, issued a public statement to dispel some of the concerns.

“[T]hese new, cooperatively managed border passages should adopt internationally-accepted terminal service standards, use commercial contractors, apply modern risk-management techniques, give recourse to commercial dispute resolution mechanisms and, critically, dispense with the back-to-back system of cargo inspection,” Roberts said. “To enable this new management philosophy to be applied, terminals need to be upgraded and modern scanning equipment introduced.”

Roberts also said the World Bank would consider financing some aspects of this project upon the request of the PNA. He emphatically denied, however, that the World Bank had ever considered financing gates in the Separation Wall, stating that the proposal referred to checkpoints “only on the 1967 borders”.

His statement, addressed to Palestinian non-governmental organizations, began: “[S]ome press articles have suggested that the World Bank intends to “upgrade” checkpoints in the West Bank, or to finance gates in the Separation Barrier in places where it deviates from the 1967 border inside Palestinian territory. Let me assure you that this is untrue.”

 

(View Mekay's Article)