Aid But No State. The Role of the EU in the Middle East Conflict

Scarcely anywhere else receives as much aid per capita as Palestine. Since the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995, this flow of money has amounted to well over 25 billion US dollars. Its purpose: to support the establishment of an independent democratic state of Palestine that exists alongside and in peace with Israel. This mantra has been repeated in thousands of documents and brochures since 1993. The EU is the largest donor to the Palestinian territories.

But the results after 20 years of these efforts are disastrous. The prospect of a Palestinian state is more distant than ever, and the situation in the occupied territories is in many respects much worse than it was before Oslo: the economic situation is precarious, a quarter of the population lives in poverty, unemployment in the West Bank is at 17%, and has reached a staggering 43% in the Gaza Strip, the highest in the world. Only 18% of the West Bank is under sole Palestinian control. And the amount of water that Palestinians in the West Bank are allowed to pump from their own wells hasn’t increased, as provided for in the second Oslo agreement of 1995, but rather decreased, despite the billions in donor funds that have flowed into the water sector, with Germany being the sector’s largest bilateral donor (all figures as of 2015/16).

After 22 years of international support, the occupation hasn’t ended, but rather hardened.

“Put an end to European hypocrisy,” demands Miguel Moratinos, former Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, in an interview with us. “Otherwise, we will very soon have missed the great opportunity for peace.”

Our film examines European donor policy and aid projects in the occupied territories. “Payer, not a player”, in other words, donor but not a political player, has become a common description of the role of the EU in the Middle East, even within political circles.

Screenings / Festivals

First broadcast: September 29, 2015, arte

• Okt & Nov. 2015: Brotfabrik Berlin
• Jan. 2016: globale Filmfestival Berlin
• Jan. 2017: globale Mittelhessen
• Okt. 2016: Days Of Cinema: Palestine, Ramallah
• Aug. 2017: globale Leipzig
• Nov. 2017: Entwicklungspolitischer Filmherbst Baden-Württemberg
• Feb. 2019: globale Bremen

World Sales

New Docs, Elina Kewitz
+49 (0)221 16819743
elina.kewitz@newdocs.de
www.newdocs.de