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This is the way to build a state
10.8.2007
By Zvi Bar'el |
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August
10, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (northern
Iraq), -- In his huge office in Erbil, the capital
of the Kurdistan district, the district governor
Nawzad Maulud explains the difficulties involved in
building a Kurdish "state": There is not enough
electricity, there is no sewage system and no
organized water system, the citizens do not pay
taxes, and there is no friendly country they can
rely on.
In order to establish these services, the Erbil
sub-district, one of three Kurdish sub-districts
that make up the Kurdish district in Iraq, requires
about $1 billion. The solution: private investors,
both Kurdish and foreign, will set up the
electricity network while the government will take
care of the sewage system, and the blossoming
economy will develop the friendly country.
Outside the governor's office, one can see
construction cranes, steam rollers and lots of
workers that are building the new Erbil and its
environs, its luxurious homes and commercial centers
where foreign investors have already deposited their
cash. |
Zvi Bar'el |
Kurdistan is a gigantic success story mainly because
it is a country without a real budget of its own. It
receives 17 percent of the entire income of the
Iraqi government, about $7 billion. Some 75 percent
of this sum is devoted to paying wages, and the
remainder is earmarked for rehabilitation - buying
text books for universities, sending more student
delegations abroad, and paying for the sewage
network. In this way, Kurdistan can serve as an
example to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Both are
dependent for their income on other governments and
foreign sources. Both are ethnic entities holding
onto an elusive national dream. Neither can
implement it yet - the Kurds mainly because of the
opposition of Turkey, and the Palestinians mainly
because they require Israeli permission. The
Palestinians want 100 percent of their territory,
while the Kurds are demanding that another three
districts be added to their region. Neither,
apparently, will get everything they want.
Both the Kurds and the Palestinians have similar
political experiences. The two main Kurdish factions
- one led by Jalal Talabani and the other by Massoud
Barazani - waged a bloody war until a decade ago,
which led to large numbers of dead and thousands of
refugees and destroyed villages. Armistice
agreements came and went, and every side accused the
other of "selling out of the Kurdish problem." There
is neither great love nor much trust between the
camps even today, but their mutual interest was
paramount - the war in Iraq brought about a
coalition of interests between the Kurdish factions.
Thus a unique political structure was established:
the Kurdish district is jointly administered, and
the two camps have an equal number of portfolios and
resources.
It is too easy and sometimes an oversimplification
to create an analogy between the two conflicts,
between the two national or ethnic entities. But the
Kurdish example is enticing because of its success.
It is possible to try to create from it an
educational tool to be studied by the Palestinians
and the Israelis, especially those who believe the
conflict will last forever and that the only
important thing is ideology. In Kurdistan, history
is being made every day, and as the editor of the
Kurdish newspaper Habath (Xebat) said in quoting the
Syrian playwright Sadallah Wannous, "we are doomed
to hope."
But it is not merely in the imagination or in the
success stories that there is a lesson for the
Palestinians and the Israelis, but also in the
substantive difference between them.
The Kurds, as their minister for higher education
explains, are prepared to delay the declaration of
the establishment of a state of their own until such
time as they can enjoy economic success and show the
world that they do not constitute a danger. The
Palestinians - even if they wish to adopt the
Kurdish formula and improve their economy prior to a
state - cannot. To implement this, the PA requires
generosity on the part of Israel that will allow its
economy to flourish, will remove roadblocks, will
free funds, will allow them to build an airport, and
in particular, will provide a genuine diplomatic
horizon that will ensure that an investment in
Palestine is an investment in a state and not in a
ghetto or an occupied territory.
haaretz com
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