PA won't pay wages to employees who report directly to Hamas
Senior Haniyeh aide: 23,000 workers to be excluded from wage payments; Hamas' Executive Force won't be paid.
By ReutersPalestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' emergency government will pay all Palestinian Authority workers - excluding those who report directly to Hamas - their first full wages in 17 months, officials said on Monday.
In Hamas-ruled Gaza, mosque preachers struck back with a religious decree that government workers who accept the money under such conditions violate the rules of Islam.
The payments will go to nearly 140,000 Palestinian Authority workers, including tens of thousands in Gaza which Hamas seized by force on June 14.
"There will be full salaries for all civil and security sector [employees]," Riyad al-Malki, Abbas' minister of information, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the emergency cabinet.
But some 23,000 workers hired by Hamas after it won 2006 elections will be excluded, said a senior aide to Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government that Abbas dismissed after the violent June takeover.
Abbas has made some limited payments to workers since Israel froze tax revenue transfers and Western powers imposed economic sanctions after Hamas's election win.
But according to Malki, full wages have not been paid by the Authority since February 2006.
Salam Fayad, the prime minister and finance minister in Abbas's Western-backed emergency government, has pledged to pay those who return to work in Gaza as long as they follow its instructions - and not those of Hamas.
Members of the Fatah-dominated security services in Gaza have also been asked by their commanders in the West Bank to stay at home as a condition for receiving their salaries.
Haniyeh aide Mohammad al-Madhoum said the exclusion of those hired by Hamas was "shameful" and urged Fayad to reconsider.
Among those who will be excluded are nearly 6,000 members of Hamas' elite Executive Force, which played a key role in the fighting in Gaza that routed troops loyal to Fatah.
Israel transferred $118 million to Fayad on Sunday, approximately 20 percent of frozen Palestinian tax revenues, senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.
Israel, which collects taxes and duties for goods entering the Palestinian territories, will also automatically transfer to Fayad tens of millions of dollars per month in newly collected tax revenues, Israeli officials said.
Along with a European Union mechanism that pays nearly $30 million a month to civil servants and pensioners, Fayad should have enough money to cover the rest of the Palestinian Authority's nearly $120 million-a-month wage bill. But he may struggle to pay full arrears any time soon, officials said.
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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad speaking during a cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Monday. (AP) |
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I guess my opinion was important enough for an idiot named Fred to spend his "valuable" time responding
It looks like David will be the next GOVT. advisor, so that he can report HIS findings.
Sorry to learn of the divorce. Rushdie create too much stir?
Mr Abbas and Mr Fayad, this is Palestinian money, collected from all of us regardless of our political believes as tax revenues. It is not your money and you do not represent an elected government. So, what the hell is going on? Is this the democracy that the WEST trying to create in the middle east??????? The West should not be surprised when radicalism grows and flourish.
This charade of abbas paying fatah salaries in gaza confirms what we have all been thinking. There was no war between fatah & hamas. Faced with an economic boycott the only way to get the funds flowing again was to throw a few palis off the roofs and declare a split. This gets the USA & EU & Israel to open the money tap. Does anybody except olmert believe that abbas will do anything to stop the hate incitement, rocket launchings, and genereal mayhem that are endemic in gaza & Judea and Samaria? Why not start with a simple formula-until Gilad is released you palis get NOTHING! CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IDEOLOGY IS DRIVING ISRAELI POLICY??
Can somebody explain the mechanism underwhich Israel taxes Palestinian goods ? I don't quite follow ..
Lakshmi says: due apologies to rats who seem to be on a higher scale of evolution than the israel-u.s.-quisling faction. I presume you are very familiar with rats. In fact you smell of one too. You're nothing but a rabble-rousing bigot of the worst kind.
Danny Rubinstein and "Haaretz" editors are on the verge of launching campaign " Keep essential services in Gaza,pay Hamas"
I believe this action will push Hamas people to be on the payroll of Iran and those hidden Middle Eastern oil rich and devout Muslim tycoons. I mean similar to Hezbollah. Israel should better change its arrogant attitude and talk to the right people that represent the Palestinian people. Peace is possible only with those whom you consider enemies and not with those who pretend to befriend you, only to turn around and backstab you.
WOW! The Palestinians fooled everyone. The Palestinians get the money, the Europeans and the U.S.A will now pressure the Israelis to make big concessions in peace talks including giving up all or most of the West Bank and East Jerusalem because "good" Abbas is in charge now. For the world they will sign a peace agreement and behind the scenes Hamas will continue to send missiles into Israel. Israel will than have given the Palestinians everything they had to give and still not have any peace. When its all said and done Hamas will still get their salaries but they will get it behind the scenes as usual.
meanwhile,lots of things can happen.Dahlan may develop a further knee complication and Abbas,well he doesn't look too good either.And as the poet Robert Burns said:"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft awry(go often awry)."Just have to change it to mice and rats (due apologies to rats who seem to be on a higher scale of evolution than the israel-u.s.-quisling faction.
hamas will simply take the money. who is going to stop them?? they dont even have to directly take it. how about hamas take over the markets. you can only buy food and products from them. stealing without the use of a gun. again, who is going to stop them?? time for abbas to realize he lost gaza for ever and is on the verge of losing wb unless he acts strongly against the terrorists.
that Hamas will accept this? I feel bad for those in Gaza who do not belong to Hamas- who will probably attack and confiscate the money going to anyone working for Fatah.