RAMALLAH, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Coalition for Accountability and Integrity-Transparency International, announced the results of Palestine's Integrity Index results for the year 2017, warning that reforms do not meet needs of combatting corruption.
The national integrity index for Palestine in 2017 came at 552 points out of 1,000 points, which is the same as the past seven years, according to the coalition.
The report said that 44 of the internationally recognized indicators failed to reach 50 percent, while the remaining 28 indicators did not get higher than 70 percent, citing the main impediment to be the internal division between rival political Palestinian parties; Fatah and Hamas.
The rift and Islamic Hamas movement's refusal was also the reason why this study was only made in the West Bank and excluded Gaza Strip, where the situation is expected to be severe in terms of respect to rights, legislations and law enforcement, which are the three main items that the 72 indicators study.
Researcher Jihad Harb said that the general indicators, despite minor changes remain weak and reflects lack of respect to the law or its enforcement.
"In this sense, the integrity indicators remain weak," Harb explained that "in 2017, 10 indicators saw a rise and 16 others retracted out of 72 indicators all in all and if we examine the indicators, we would notice no significant change, expect for three."
He elaborated that one of three indicators went up due to holding local elections, while the other two went down due to the closure of several websites and the adequacy of legislations with international corruption combat law, which measures the extend towards which the Palestinian Authority responds to feedback on the international corruption review.
In the first half of 2017, 22 websites were either closed or banned in Palestine, which received full points in 2016 but none in 2017.
The coalition called on the PA to take serious measures to achieve internal unity and national reconciliation, to allow the Palestinian Legislative Council to convene and paly its role in the Palestinian political system as a powerful authority that resembles the people.
The report indicators examine legislations and practices to guarantee testing the existence of a legal framework and law enforcement.
