The West: Who Will Live and Who Will Die in Palestine?
WAITING: A Palestinian family waits to cross Erez crossing while trying to flee from Gaza June 19. Palestinians whose loyalties are with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction have been trying to escape the Gaza Strip after armed Hamas Islamists took over last week. (REUTERS)Hamas accuses West of playing politics with aid
by Adel Zaanoun
June 19, 2007
GAZA CITY, Gaza -- The Islamists of Hamas accused the West Tuesday of playing politics with Palestinian aid after it resumed assistance to the government in the West Bank while their Gaza bastion remains under Israeli blockade.
The United States and Europe restored direct aid to the Palestinians Monday in a show of support for President Mahmoud Abbas, who set up an emergency government when his Hamas rivals seized power in Gaza last week after days of brutal bloodletting.
"By announcing their political and financial support for the Palestinian Authority [PA], the West is backing an illegitimate government," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
EU and US support for the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was "an attempt to manipulate the Palestinian people and distance it from Hamas," he charged, adding that the strategy would not work.
Hamas' seizure of Gaza after vicious street battles with loyalists of Abbas' secular Fatah faction that left more than 110 people dead has driven a deep wedge in Palestinian society.
Abbas' government is based in his West Bank stronghold while Hamas is in control of Gaza, a tiny strip of land whose impoverished people rely on goods from outside but are now sealed off from the rest of the world by Israel.
The PA insisted that it remains in full control, "administratively and morally," of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but the divide has dimmed hopes of the creation of a future independent state.
The EU partially froze ties and suspended direct aid when Hamas swept to power last year after a shock win over Fatah in January 2006 elections. The United States also cut off all aid funneled directly to the Palestinian government in a bid to prevent Western money ending up in Hamas coffers.
But the boycott deepened the desperate economic plight of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on the planet where 80 percent of the population relies on aid.
Several hundred Palestinians are camping out in miserable conditions at the Erez border crossing with Israel, desperate to flee feared retribution and threatened shortages of basic supplies.
"If we can't get to the West Bank, give us political asylum in an Arab country, in Europe, in the United States. Anywhere," shouted desperate civil servant Amr.
The Israeli army said that it was providing the asylum-seekers with food and water but would not admit them to the occupied West Bank for fear that there were militants among them who had engaged in attacks against Israel.
The army also confirmed that tanks that had been positioned in northern of Gaza since Sunday in a bid to stop militant rocket fire were moving to the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing.
"They were already inside Gaza searching for terrorist infrastructure and have been called over to the crossing for defensive needs of the crossing," a spokesman said.
In Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers urged Israel to support the fragile government set up in defiance of Hamas, which is on a Western blacklist of outlawed "terrorist" groups.
Foreign minister Tzippi Livni said that Israel would pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and customs revenue to the new Palestinian government soon.
"We believe that time is of the essence," she told reporters in Luxembourg.
Israel froze the payments following Hamas' election victory and while it released some money early this year, around $600 million is still owing.
Israeli cabinet minister Gideon Ezra went further, calling on the government to free its most renowned Fatah prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, to boost the authority of Abbas.
The environment minister told public radio that the release of the popular Barghouti, detained in 2002 for his role in leading the Palestinian uprising over the previous two years, would strengthen the moderate president's position.
Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is due to meet US President George W. Bush Tuesday, said that the appointment of Fayyad's government could pave the way for revived peace talks after seven years of stalemate.
Fayyad Monday chaired the first meeting of his cabinet - which under Palestinian law has a life of 30 days renewable once - with pledges to work to heal the deep Palestinian rift.
"We are going to work to remedy and put an end to this abnormal situation. We are going to see what gradual steps can be implemented to this end in the Gaza Strip," information minister Riyad Al Malki said.
Hamas appealed for an end to revenge attacks against its supporters in the West Bank and said that it had raised the issue with members of the Arab League, which has been much slower than the West to side with Abbas, instead calling for renewed dialogue between the two sides.
Angry Fatah supporters have ransacked Hamas offices in the northern city of Nablus and Monday a Fatah-linked militant group published the names of 32 Hamas "murderers" that it said it would hunt down if they did not surrender. ?
The United States and Europe restored direct aid to the Palestinians Monday in a show of support for President Mahmoud Abbas, who set up an emergency government when his Hamas rivals seized power in Gaza last week after days of brutal bloodletting.
"By announcing their political and financial support for the Palestinian Authority [PA], the West is backing an illegitimate government," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
EU and US support for the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was "an attempt to manipulate the Palestinian people and distance it from Hamas," he charged, adding that the strategy would not work.
Hamas' seizure of Gaza after vicious street battles with loyalists of Abbas' secular Fatah faction that left more than 110 people dead has driven a deep wedge in Palestinian society.
Abbas' government is based in his West Bank stronghold while Hamas is in control of Gaza, a tiny strip of land whose impoverished people rely on goods from outside but are now sealed off from the rest of the world by Israel.
The PA insisted that it remains in full control, "administratively and morally," of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but the divide has dimmed hopes of the creation of a future independent state.
The EU partially froze ties and suspended direct aid when Hamas swept to power last year after a shock win over Fatah in January 2006 elections. The United States also cut off all aid funneled directly to the Palestinian government in a bid to prevent Western money ending up in Hamas coffers.
But the boycott deepened the desperate economic plight of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on the planet where 80 percent of the population relies on aid.
Several hundred Palestinians are camping out in miserable conditions at the Erez border crossing with Israel, desperate to flee feared retribution and threatened shortages of basic supplies.
"If we can't get to the West Bank, give us political asylum in an Arab country, in Europe, in the United States. Anywhere," shouted desperate civil servant Amr.
The Israeli army said that it was providing the asylum-seekers with food and water but would not admit them to the occupied West Bank for fear that there were militants among them who had engaged in attacks against Israel.
The army also confirmed that tanks that had been positioned in northern of Gaza since Sunday in a bid to stop militant rocket fire were moving to the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing.
"They were already inside Gaza searching for terrorist infrastructure and have been called over to the crossing for defensive needs of the crossing," a spokesman said.
In Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers urged Israel to support the fragile government set up in defiance of Hamas, which is on a Western blacklist of outlawed "terrorist" groups.
Foreign minister Tzippi Livni said that Israel would pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and customs revenue to the new Palestinian government soon.
"We believe that time is of the essence," she told reporters in Luxembourg.
Israel froze the payments following Hamas' election victory and while it released some money early this year, around $600 million is still owing.
Israeli cabinet minister Gideon Ezra went further, calling on the government to free its most renowned Fatah prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, to boost the authority of Abbas.
The environment minister told public radio that the release of the popular Barghouti, detained in 2002 for his role in leading the Palestinian uprising over the previous two years, would strengthen the moderate president's position.
Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is due to meet US President George W. Bush Tuesday, said that the appointment of Fayyad's government could pave the way for revived peace talks after seven years of stalemate.
Fayyad Monday chaired the first meeting of his cabinet - which under Palestinian law has a life of 30 days renewable once - with pledges to work to heal the deep Palestinian rift.
"We are going to work to remedy and put an end to this abnormal situation. We are going to see what gradual steps can be implemented to this end in the Gaza Strip," information minister Riyad Al Malki said.
Hamas appealed for an end to revenge attacks against its supporters in the West Bank and said that it had raised the issue with members of the Arab League, which has been much slower than the West to side with Abbas, instead calling for renewed dialogue between the two sides.
Angry Fatah supporters have ransacked Hamas offices in the northern city of Nablus and Monday a Fatah-linked militant group published the names of 32 Hamas "murderers" that it said it would hunt down if they did not surrender. ?
Labels: Palestine
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 6:07 PM
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