Investigators from the European Union’s fraud office are arriving in Israel this week to try to find out where all that money the EU’s been sending to the Palestinians is really going: EU Funds Disappear. (Hat tip: Elle Plater.)

The European fraud-busters come at a time when allegations are mounting of corruption in the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian officials and employees of pressure groups in the West Bank and Gaza are accused of having systematically diverted foreign aid over recent years.

But the outcome of the OLAF investigation is by no means certain.

That’s because European Union officials, orchestrated by EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, have repeatedly ignored the signs that millions of euros of taxpayers’ money may be ending up in the wrong Palestinian pockets.

In the hope of strengthening ties with Yasser Arafat and the Arab world, EU leaders have proved remarkably reluctant to find out exactly how their aid money is spent.