GAZA, March 30: Hamas ministers began work on Thursday after the Palestinian militant group’s government took office, battling Western isolation and a crippling cash crunch.
One of the first challenges for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his cabinet, sworn in on Wednesday, will be paying March salaries for 140,000 Palestinian (PA) Authority staff.
Israel, where interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is building a coalition after his Kadima party won elections this week but took less than a quarter of seats in parliament, has already cut monthly tax transfers of $50-$55 million.
On Wednesday, the United States ordered its diplomats and contractors to have no contacts with Palestinian ministries and Canada suspended aid to the Authority. Hamas took over the Palestinian government after winning January elections.
“We are surprised democratic regimes adopt the method of boycott and punishment without even sitting down with this new government,” Minister of Information Youssef Rizka said.
“This government has true intentions and the determination to face the big challenges, especially on the economic front.”
Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and has rebuffed demands from the ‘Quartet’ of Middle East peace mediators to recognise the Jewish state, ‘renounce violence’ and abide by peace accords or risk losing vital aid.
The Quartet — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — has yet to agree on mechanisms to ensure humanitarian assistance bypasses Hamas but continues to flow to the Palestinian people. February salaries to 140,000 PA workers, including security personnel, were paid weeks overdue.
Asked if wages would be paid on time, normally in the first week of every month, Ismail Haniyeh said the Authority was seeking funds from Arab and other Islamic countries as well as the European Union.
The Palestinian Authority relies on some $1 billion in foreign aid every year. Aid groups say a funding crisis could lead to violence in Palestinian areas, where as many as one in four people is dependent on wages from the Authority.
COALITION: Mr Olmert’s centrist Kadima party won Tuesday’s election on plans to set the Jewish state’s final borders within four years with or without agreement of its Palestinian neighbour.
In the absence of talks — improbable with Hamas in power — Mr Olmert has vowed to draw Israel’s frontier by 2010 by removing isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank and expanding bigger ones.—Reuters
