PA Cronyism Stalls Housing

St. Petersburg Times columnist Susan Taylor Martin reports on a Gaza housing complex donated by the United Arab Emirates, but is uninhabited because of a disagreement with the Palestinian Authority. Martin writes that the PA wants to put the apartments up for sale, feeling that people investing in their homes will take more responsibility, while the UAE insists that the apartments were a gift for poor Palestinians. But Martin overlooked a deeper problem. Last August, Knight-Ridder reported that the reason for the friction was because the UAE fears the apartments will be sold at cut-rate prices to PA cronies.