A Palestinian Lifeline
Hamas has only benefited from the West's attempt to starve its government.
The Washington Post
Saturday, May 20, 2006; A22
A WESTERN effort to tame the Islamic government of the Palestinian Authority is foundering. The United States, European Union and Israel have been withholding aid -- and in Israel's case, customs receipts -- from an administration that depends on those funds to pay some 165,000 employees. The outside nations, the chief source of support for the Palestinian Authority before Hamas won an election, have been demanding that the Hamas movement accept Israel, renounce terrorism and abide by existing Israeli-Palestinian accords before funding is restored. But Palestinian leaders have a long tradition of exploiting the suffering of their own people for political ends; Hamas has been content to foster a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The result is that Israel and the Western donors are negotiating among themselves about how much funding should be restored to the Palestinians and in what form. They have little choice, since the collapse of the Palestinian Authority would do more damage to Israel, and lingering hopes for a Middle East peace, than it would to Hamas. But the governments need to be careful in their retrenchment: What's needed is an approach that spares average Palestinians from hunger and disease while continuing the political isolation of Hamas.
European governments are taking the lead in creating a new mechanism for international aid that would bypass Hamas-run ministries. In theory, money would be paid directly to institutions and their employees. All sides agree that Palestinian hospitals and clinics should be provided with funds to buy medicines and supplies and to pay the salaries of their staff, who make up about 8 percent of the government workforce. Some Europeans also would like to fund schools and teachers, who constitute another 22 percent of employees. Israel and the Bush administration are more skeptical; they question whether a Hamas-run curriculum should receive Western funding. And what of garbage workers? Gas stations? By increments, international donors could soon persuade themselves to fund most of the Palestinian government.
That may be necessary to avoid the authority's collapse: The Palestinians have scant revenue other than that collected -- and currently restricted -- by Israel. Despite its understandable rejection of Hamas, it is in Israel's larger interest to allow Palestinian money to be used for legitimate Palestinian needs and to ease its current chokehold on the movement of goods in and out of Gaza. But Western governments should draw the line at providing for Hamas cadres now installed in ministries or the salaries of the 75,000 gunmen who are on the Palestinian payroll -- unless these take decisive action against terrorism. Palestinians who are supplied with necessities but denied a government that can negotiate for their statehood will more likely place the blame where it belongs -- at home.
The Washington Post
Saturday, May 20, 2006; A22
A WESTERN effort to tame the Islamic government of the Palestinian Authority is foundering. The United States, European Union and Israel have been withholding aid -- and in Israel's case, customs receipts -- from an administration that depends on those funds to pay some 165,000 employees. The outside nations, the chief source of support for the Palestinian Authority before Hamas won an election, have been demanding that the Hamas movement accept Israel, renounce terrorism and abide by existing Israeli-Palestinian accords before funding is restored. But Palestinian leaders have a long tradition of exploiting the suffering of their own people for political ends; Hamas has been content to foster a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The result is that Israel and the Western donors are negotiating among themselves about how much funding should be restored to the Palestinians and in what form. They have little choice, since the collapse of the Palestinian Authority would do more damage to Israel, and lingering hopes for a Middle East peace, than it would to Hamas. But the governments need to be careful in their retrenchment: What's needed is an approach that spares average Palestinians from hunger and disease while continuing the political isolation of Hamas.
European governments are taking the lead in creating a new mechanism for international aid that would bypass Hamas-run ministries. In theory, money would be paid directly to institutions and their employees. All sides agree that Palestinian hospitals and clinics should be provided with funds to buy medicines and supplies and to pay the salaries of their staff, who make up about 8 percent of the government workforce. Some Europeans also would like to fund schools and teachers, who constitute another 22 percent of employees. Israel and the Bush administration are more skeptical; they question whether a Hamas-run curriculum should receive Western funding. And what of garbage workers? Gas stations? By increments, international donors could soon persuade themselves to fund most of the Palestinian government.
That may be necessary to avoid the authority's collapse: The Palestinians have scant revenue other than that collected -- and currently restricted -- by Israel. Despite its understandable rejection of Hamas, it is in Israel's larger interest to allow Palestinian money to be used for legitimate Palestinian needs and to ease its current chokehold on the movement of goods in and out of Gaza. But Western governments should draw the line at providing for Hamas cadres now installed in ministries or the salaries of the 75,000 gunmen who are on the Palestinian payroll -- unless these take decisive action against terrorism. Palestinians who are supplied with necessities but denied a government that can negotiate for their statehood will more likely place the blame where it belongs -- at home.
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 8:53 AM
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