"Serry knows it. The mechanism was a licence for corruption."
12/25/14, "Corruption hampers effort to rebuild Gaza after summer conflict," UK Guardian, Peter Beaumont, Gaza
"The reconstruction of Gaza after this summer’s 50-day war with Israel is moving at a glacial pace with only a tiny amount of the promised rebuilding materials so far delivered.
Amid mounting criticism of the pace of the rebuilding effort, the Guardian has established that a controversial UN-designed mechanism to control the supply of building materials – and prevent them falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas – has been widely corrupted.
A report released by Oxfam this month warns that despite $5.4bn (£3.5bn) in pledges at an international donor conference this year, and an agreement between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the UN to allow building materials in Gaza, less material was entering the coastal strip in November than before the war.
The Oxfam report said just 287 such truckloads had entered Gaza in November, adding that “at this rate, reconstruction and development could take decades”.
The UN estimates some 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the conflict – which claimed the lives of 2,100 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis – affecting more than 600,000 people in Gaza. Many still lack access to the municipal water network, while blackouts of up to 18 hours a day are common.
The mechanism for allowing the entry of materials into Gaza – including the monitoring of the distribution and use of concrete – was designed by the UN special envoy Robert Serry to satisfy Israeli government concerns that cement should not be diverted to Hamas for military purposes, including tunnel building.
But some within the UN and international aid groups had privately expressed fears that the mechanism – which involves inspection, registration and monitoring – was vulnerable to corruption. During a recent visit in December, Serry warned of his concern about the pace of the reconstruction effort amid “dire” conditions....
He called on all stakeholders and the international community to make good on their calls to help Gaza when he visited the UN security council recently.
“This includes progress on all fronts, progress which must be made now lest we see Gaza fall back into yet another conflict.”
But despite promises that some 20,000 householders would qualify for help in rebuilding, the mechanism for that help has been hit by problems and controversy.
Under the scheme householders are assessed to see if they qualify for rebuilding materials, then registered and issued with a coupon allowing them to buy a specified amount of materials from warehouses monitored by a UN-administered inspection regime.
During a recent visit to cement warehouses in Gaza, however, the Guardian [witnessed] cement being resold a few feet outside the warehouse doors at up to four times the cost within minutes of being handed over to householders with coupons.
Elsewhere, the Guardian heard allegations of officials taking bribes to produce coupons for more concrete than was needed by householders, so the excess could be resold on the black market, with licensed dealers either turning a blind eye to fraud or participating in it.
At his warehouse, one of the biggest in Gaza City, manager Maher Khalil complained about the complexity of the system. “We do what we are supposed to do,” he told the Guardian. “There is a list published with people’s names which we post outside. They check their name and come with their coupon. We check the ID and then give them the cement.
“We told the UN inspectors who came to see us we can only check what is going on inside the warehouse, not what is happening outside. Inside we sell the concrete for 500 shekels [£81] a tonne. Outside they sell it for 1,600.”
Walking out of the warehouse the Guardian immediately encountered men with horse carts loaded with cement who offered to both buy and sell concrete. One man offered to buy a bag – usually costing 27 shekels – for 70 shekels, saying he would sell it for 90. Another street trader with a laden cart offered to sell concrete by the tonne.
At the bottom of this food chain was Adham, a scrawny boy of nine who was collecting the concrete dust off the carts to put into a bag that he planned to sell for 5 shekels to buy snacks for himself and his brothers.
“It is a disgrace what is happening,” said economist Omar Shaaban. “The new reconstruction mechanism has reproduced the Israeli siege of Gaza, only this time it is the UN that is regulating it.
The UN is trading stability for cement – and not very much of it. And most of the cement that is coming in is being sold on the black market. Israel knows it. Serry knows it. The mechanism was a licence for corruption. It is a licence to prolong the siege. It is a licence for big salaries for the UN officials running it. What is absurd is that none of it is preventing Hamas rebuilding.”
The difficulties facing Palestinians whose houses were destroyed or damaged in Gaza are in evidence at almost every turn.
In Shujaiya, one of the areas most heavily hit during the war, the rubble had been cleared from the streets but there was little evidence of anyone rebuilding.
One exception was Nabil Ayad, who was supervising a small group of workmen building a wall around the space where his nephew’s shop once stood.
“It has been very difficult to find all of the materials. We got the bricks on the black market.
Normally they cost 2.7 shekels each but we had to pay 4. We had the money for a wall, not to rebuild the store. Most people don’t have any money at all for rebuilding. The priority for now is the wall. Then we’ll take it step by step when we can afford it.”
Less fortunate was Sami Saad, 37, who was still living with his family in a school that had been turned into a UN shelter – one of some 70,000 without proper accommodation. His home, also in Shujaiya, was destroyed 10 minutes after he fled from it. His son Youssef needs an operation unconnected to the war and he hopes to take his family away to Jordan or Saudi Arabia.
If he can leave he does not plan to return. “If I can go,” he said, in the bare classroom that now serves as a bedroom, “I won’t come back. I had a clothes business and a nice house. Now all of it is gone. I need somewhere where I can live with dignity. There is no dignity here.”
Catherine Essoyan, Oxfam’s regional director, said: “It is deplorable that such little progress has been made given the enormous scale of needs and massive destruction. People in Gaza are becoming increasingly and understandably frustrated at the lack of progress."...
Image: "Nine-year-old Adham scrapes up concrete dust into his bag to sell as men haggle in the background over the price of a cart of black-market concrete. Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian"
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Israel official accused UN envoy Serry of attempting to steer aid to Hamas from Qatar:
6/22/14, "Liberman seeks to expel UN envoy Robert Serry for trying to give aid to Hamas," Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon
"Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is to convene a meeting of senior ministry officials Sunday to discuss whether to declare the UN’s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, persona non grata, a move that would result in his expulsion.
The discussion comes amid allegations in the Foreign Ministry that Serry worked inside the UN to transfer $20 million from Qatar to Hamas to pay salaries.
According to diplomatic sources, Serry asked Israel and the Palestinian Authority to allow the transfer of the funds, but was met with refusals from both sides. He did not give up, however, and continued to push the idea through the UN institutions.
According to the sources, he wanted the money to be transferred to UN agencies, which would then transfer it to Hamas inside Gaza.
The sources said that Serry was trying to find an alternative avenue to getting funds to Hamas, since the Egyptians have closed the smuggling tunnels through which the money used to pass.
The sources said that for Liberman this was the final straw in a long history of what he viewed as very problematic behavior by the UN envoy.
For instance, the official said that in April Serry accused Israel of barring diplomats and Palestinians from participating in a pre-Easter religious ceremony.
Israeli officials denied the charges, saying Serry inflated a “micro-incident” to make Israel look bad before Pope Francis’s visit.
On Friday, Serry issued a statement condemning Israel for its hunt in the West Bank looking for Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah.
“The Special Coordinator is deeply concerned by reports that Israeli security operations in the West Bank since the abduction of three Israeli students have resulted in over 300 Palestinians arrested, many injured and three Palestinians killed, including one minor this morning,” the statement said.
The statement called on Israel to act with “restraint,” and said the UN expected “Israel to carry out the related security operations in compliance with international law and respect for the lives, dignity and livelihoods of Palestinians.”
Serry did not issue any condemnation when the kidnapping took place, though a condemnation was issued swiftly by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office.
Serry routinely issues condemnations of Israel for everything from settlement construction to “price tag” incidents. Similar condemnations on his behalf regarding Palestinian violence against Jews are few and far between. “He does not even try to look neutral or objective anymore,” a senior diplomatic source said.
Serry issued a statement rejecting the allegations that he tried to transfer funds to Hamas.
He said that he did visit Qatar a few weeks ago, but that the issue of a UN role on the payment of salaries did not come up. “There have since been reports that Qatar has been considering assisting in this issue,” he said. “And indeed I was approached last Thursday informally by Prime Minister [Rami] Hamdallah of the Palestinian Authority. In considering any UN role on the issue of payments of salaries in Gaza that has potentially destabilizing effects on security in Gaza, I made it clear that we would only be able to be of assistance if acceptable to all stakeholders, including Israel. This information was immediately shared with Israeli authorities at the working level and their initial reaction was indeed negative.”
Serry, a Dutch diplomat, asserted that in the past seven years as the UN’s Mideast envoy he has “carried out my work with impartiality in an effort to assist both Israelis and Palestinians. It is now disheartening to hear that in considering a request from one of the parties in the aforementioned effort, the integrity of my role is being questioned.”
Any decision to declare Serry persona non grata would have to be approved by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who spoke over the weekend with Ban, updated him on the developments in the West Bank and said that Israel has unequivocal evidence that Hamas was behind the kidnappings.
Netanyahu said Israel appreciated his swift condemnation of the kidnappings.
He also said that Israel opposed the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas. It was not immediately clear, however, whether the Serry issue was raised in the conversation.
“We are witnessing the unrestrained brutality of Islamic terrorism both in Israel and around us,” Netanyahu told Ban.
“Israel is determined to defend itself in the face of the murderous terrorism directed against it.”"
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"Special Coordinator Robert H. Serry"
"Mr. Robert H. Serry of
the Netherlands was appointed by the Secretary-General as the United
Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his
Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and
the Palestinian Authority in November 2007. In this capacity, Mr. Serry
is also the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet.
In his last posting, Mr.
Serry served as the Dutch Ambassador to Ireland. His previous
professional experiences have included diplomatic postings in Bangkok,
Moscow, New York (United Nations) and Kiev. In addition, he has also
held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Crisis
Management and Operations at NATO.
Mr. Serry has also led the
Middle Eastern Affairs Division of the Dutch Foreign Ministry. In the
framework of the Netherlands European Community presidency, he
participated in the events leading to the Middle East Peace Conference
in Madrid (November 1991). He has also published several articles on
political and peacekeeping topics ranging from the Middle East to
Eastern Europe.
Mr. Serry was born in 1950
at Calcutta, is married and has three children. He graduated in
Political Science (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam."
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