Last update - 00:00 05/12/2006
Livni: International pressure on Hamas beginning to bear fruit
By The Associated Press
Pressure by the international community on Hamas is bearing fruit, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday in Paris.
"Almost a year after the arrival of Hamas [in the Palestinian government], we are beginning to see signs of change, which is in part due to pressure by the international community," Livni said at the start of her two-day visit to France.
Despite the boycott of Hamas, the European Union has found ways to increase its total aid to the Palestinian people, most recently helping support thousands of needy families, an EU official said Tuesday.
The EU said its contribution to the Palestinians has increased by 27 percent from last year, to $865 million, though the EU, United States and Israel have banned direct aid to the Palestinian government.
One tool is a temporary funding mechanism that funnels money directly to the people and projects, bypassing the government. The EU and its member states have contributed $266 million to the temporary mechanism, administered by the World Bank.
The "Quartet" of Mideast mediators - the EU, U.S., Russia and United Nations - set up the temporary funding procedure in July, as economic hardships from the aid cutoff hit ordinary Palestinians because of their choice of a Hamas-led government.
The EU, U.S. and Israel list Hamas as a terror organization. The Islamic militant group swept a parliamentary election and took office in March, triggering the Western aid cutoff. Also, Israel suspended about $55 million in monthly transfers of taxes collected for the Palestinians.
Since then, however, Western governments and aid groups have found ways to get money to the people. Some funds are directed to the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Mario Mariani, director of the temporary funding program, said the temporary funding mechanism is up for renewal in December. The latest payout was NIS 1,000 shekels to the families who used to receive benefits from the now bankrupt Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, including widows, orphans and handicapped.
The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinians, providing around $595 million a year. Most of that is channeled through UN assistance programs and NGO projects, but $83 million from the EU's common budget last year was placed in a World Bank trust fund for direct payments to help the Palestinian Authority cover its day-to-day costs.
At the same time, Hamas officials say contributions from Arab nations are increasing, easing hardships that have resulted from the government's inability to pay its 165,000 employees, triggering strikes.
Samir Abu Eisheh, the acting finance minister, said about $400 million were collected from Arab countries - 90 percent from Arab governments. Most of it went for salaries and ministry budgets, he said.
Haniyeh: Future PA government would work for right of return
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday his government, or any future national unity government, would work to preserve the Palestinians' right of return.
Haniyeh, who is on his first tour abroad since his Hamas-led government took office in March, spoke at a press conference after meeting with the representatives of 10 Palestinian factions based in Damascus.
"We stressed our commitment to preserve Palestinian rights and principles, first, foremost among them the right of return and the right of resistance until defeating the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state with full sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital," Haniyeh said.
Haniyeh, who told reporters Monday that efforts to form a national unity government had not reached a dead end, said his group was committed to forming such a cabinet to secure the lifting of international sanctions imposed since his government took power.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced last week that months of negotiations with Hamas had not led to an agreement for a moderate government that could win international recognition and help end the foreign aid boycott.
The talks became deadlocked over the distribution of key portfolios and the government's platform, with Hamas rejecting international demands that it renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said at the press conference that there was "the Palestinians are unified in insisting on breaking the blockade without paying any political costs."
U.S. queries Qatar's pledge to pay Palestinian teacher wages
A pledge by Qatar, the oil-rich Gulf emirate, to pay the salaries of some 40,000 Palestinian teachers in Gaza is under U.S. review to determine if any of the estimated $29.5 million would go to Hamas officials.
The pledge to assist the teachers was secured last week by Haniyeh on a visit to Qatar to help ease the international sanctions.
The Bush administration prohibits U.S. direct assistance to Hamas, which is designated as a terror organization, but permits humanitarian aid directly to Palestinian people or Palestinian projects.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that "if the intended use of the money is to pay padding salaries of Hamas government and that it gets funneled through a Hamas government, paid directly to a Hamas government, then that would cross a line of the existing international understanding."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet at the State Department on Wednesday with Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir al-Thani, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar.
"We are talking to them about exactly what the mechanism is through which this assistance would flow and what exactly is the intended end use," McCormack said.