Jericho Casino Closed, Palestinian Leaders Forced To Gamble With Citizens’ Lives

Palestinians as their leaders’ sacrificial victims to various money-making schemes, anti-Israel propaganda drives, and political maneuvering.

Jericho, Palestinian Territories, January 25 – The continuing shuttered state of a gambling house in this ancient city for more than two decades has left the autonomous authority governing the area no recourse to engage in organized games of chance other than risking the lives and welfare of the people under their rule in attempts to gain, extend, or retain political and economic power.

The Oasis Casino Hotel opened in 1998 to much fanfare and amid expectations of attracting Israeli and other foreign gambling money to infuse into the Palestinian economy, but closed just two years later as a wave of Palestinian terrorism endangered the premises and drove away tourists. Its operators still insist it will reopen as soon as political and security conditions permit, but in the intervening twenty years the Jericho site has languished. Palestinian National Authority law permits only holders of foreign passports to patronize the casino, leaving high-ranking officials who wish to gamble no choice but to do so with Palestinian lives, using the latter as sacrificial victims to various money-making schemes, anti-Israel propaganda drives, and political maneuvering.

A consortium of international investors saw the aftermath of the 1990’s Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization an opportunity to undergird the nascent Palestinian economy with an influx of tourist cash, with an eye toward attracting some of the many Israelis with a taste for casino gambling – a vice Israeli law does not permit. The Oasis began its operations three years after the Oslo Accords took effect and brought millions of dollars into Palestinian Authority coffers. However, terrorists operating from the grounds of the facility attracting IDF fire that caused damage, and the perils inherent in setting foot in Palestinian-controlled territory – Jericho is entirely under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction – during the Second Intifada forced the enterprise to close its doors until circumstances shift. That shift has yet to occur.

The lack of gambling opportunities has thus forced Palestinian leaders to gamble with Palestinian lives in various ways: refusing to convene Israeli-Palestinian committees on water supply and quality; withholding permits to travel to Israel for life-saving medical treatment; refraining from holding either legislative or presidential elections; and numerous other gambits aimed at making Israel look bad for depriving or oppressing Palestinians, when in fact the Palestinian suffering that results stems from Palestinian leaders’ decisions, not Israel’s. The propaganda return on the Palestinian bet in each case offers enough of a payout that even those Palestinian officials without a gambling addiction have come to appreciate the favorable (to themselves) cost-benefit ratio and the return on investment it provides.

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