Abbas withholds salaries to pay Gazans hit by war

[toomuchtime_]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Western-backed government said on Sunday it had begun making payments to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who lost their homes in last month's Israeli offensive.

Abbas' prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said that as a result, he did not have enough money to pay salaries to government workers in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Government workers have declared a strike, citing Fayyad's inability to pay wages at the beginning of the month.

The financial trade-off underscored the difficult balancing act facing Fayyad, who, in addition to running a government dependent on foreign aid, wants to take the lead in reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip to sideline Hamas.

The Islamist group, which won a 2006 Palestinian election and seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' secular Fatah forces 18 months later, has also started making partial payments to Palestinians who lost their homes in the war.

"It is unclear when we will receive money from donors. So I'm not going to put a date on when I can pay salaries," Fayyad told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his government is based.

Some 1,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel's three-week bombardment of the Gaza Strip. About 5,000 homes were destroyed, along with many roads, bridges and government buildings. Reconstruction is estimated to cost at least $2 billion.

Fayyad got the money to begin paying Palestinians in the Gaza Strip earlier this month when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved the transfer of 175 million shekels ($43 million) from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

Olmert aides said the money belonged to the Palestinians and would not be used to benefit Hamas, which is shunned by Western powers for refusing to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Abbas withholds salaries to pay Gazans hit by war - Israel News, Ynetnews

 

[Munin]

I wonder if it actually benefits someone if we pay money to build new houses in Gaza, if Hamas is the reason they are destroyed each time. What purpose has it to use money to pay for a house if some thug is going to shoot rockets from next to that house into Israel? You might as well throw away the money you would give to build that house.

It is really disgusting that Hamas is deteriorating the position of palestinians even more (like it wasn't bad enough already), they take away the moral high ground of innocent palestinians. They take away the very reason why aid is given to palestinians : prosperity and a good life.

Sure you can argue that Israel is the main reason for all of this, but Israel would not have a justification for all this if Hamas didn't exist. Israel would be seen as the devil, not the Palestinians. But this is not the case, Hamas just ruined it for all of them. Sad that the palestinians are to blind too see this.

 

[toomuchtime_]

I wonder if it actually benefits someone if we pay money to build new houses in Gaza, if Hamas is the reason they are destroyed each time. What purpose has it to use money to pay for a house if some thug is going to shoot rockets from next to that house into Israel? You might as well throw away the money you would give to build that house.

It is really disgusting that Hamas is deteriorating the position of palestinians even more (like it wasn't bad enough already), they take away the moral high ground of innocent palestinians. They take away the very reason why aid is given to palestinians : prosperity and a good life.

Sure you can argue that Israel is the main reason for all of this, but Israel would not have a justification for all this if Hamas didn't exist. Israel would be seen as the devil, not the Palestinians. But this is not the case, Hamas just ruined it for all of them. Sad that the palestinians are to blind too see this.

If the Palestinians had a competent, unified government that was serious about a peaceful two state solution, imo, there would have been such a solution long ago, but they never have and as long as Iran and Syria keep Hamas alive, it is hard to imagine they ever will. It seems pretty clear to me that neither the PA nor the Israeli government expects anything to come from the so called peace process, but they continue to engage in it to satisfy pressures from the US and EU, which seem to be more interested in peace gestures than progress.

 

[Shogun]

As if jewish settlers don't already have their eyes on newly vacant, slightly bloodstained land. Gimme a fucking break.

 

[Munin]

As if jewish settlers don't already have their eyes on newly vacant, slightly bloodstained land. Gimme a fucking break.

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