Pressures have been piled on the ruling Islamic Resistance
Movement (Hamas) as calls for forming a coalition government
mounted and a grave financial crisis deteriorated amid an Israeli
offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of unpaid Palestinian governmental employees
demonstrated in sit-in protests in front of their ministries in
West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.
The employees demanded the Hamas-led government to pay their
salaries. Otherwise, they called on the government to resign "if it
was unable to carry out its obligations."
The Palestinian government was unable to pay salaries for the
165,000 public employees since it took office in late March due to
an aid cutoff by key donors.
Meanwhile, rift between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and
Prime Minister Ismail Haneya over forming a coalition government
has widened.
On Aug. 17, Abbas and Haneya agreed on forming a coalition
government, however, Haneya outlined three preconditions to form
the coalition on the next day, which includes the release of jailed
Hamas ministers and lawmakers by Israel, ending international
boycott against the Hamas government and nominating a prime
minister from Hamas.
The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat quoted unidentified
Palestinian sources as saying on Wednesday that Abbas was very
angry and rejected the three conditions put forward by
Haneya.
?
Other well-informed sources said on Tuesday that Abbas favored the
formation of a technocrat government instead of a coalition one to
replace the current Hamas-led cabinet.
Analysts believe that there are three tasks for Abbas and Haneya
at the time being and if they failed to reach an agreement on the
three tasks, the ongoing crisis in the Palestinian territories will
never be resolved.
"The first task is to end up with forming a national unity
government, the second one is to find a solution to the kidnapped
Israeli soldier and the third is to reach a ceasefire with Israel,
" said Adnan Abu Salem, a Palestinian scholar who teaches political
science in Gaza.
?
He underscored that everyone "should work in parallel until each
task achieves its positive results, then if these three issues are
settled, I do believe that Hamas would escape from the ongoing
pressure and suffering of the Palestinian people would end."
On the financial front, as the fiscal situation was getting
worse, Palestinian employees, including teachers and other civil
servants as well as unemployed workers were getting angry.
"We regret to vote for Hamas in the election," a Palestinian
employee complained, adding, "Hamas ran in the election under the
slogan 'change and reform', but we have seen neither change nor
reform."
Salim al-Khawaja asked, "Where are the huge amounts of cash that
many Hamas leaders have recently smuggled into the Gaza Strip
through Rafah border crossing?"
Hamas, who overwhelmingly won the January election, rejected to
meet three demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and
accept previous peace deals between Israel and the
Palestinians.
Key donors including the United States and the European Union
have cut off direct aid since Hamas single handedly form the
cabinet in late March.
Earlier, Israel has already halted monthly transfer of tax money
it collects on behalf of the Palestinian government while vowing no
contact with the Palestinian government led by Hamas, a group which
calls for Israel's destruct.
The pressures on Hamas movement have mounted since one of its
armed wing, along with two other Palestinian factions, nabbed an
Israeli soldier in an armed attack on June 25, which sparked
Israel's comprehensive offensive against the Gaza Strip.
As part of the offensive to free the hostage and halt rocket
attack, Israel has arrested eight ministers and more than two
dozens lawmakers in the Hamas-led cabinet including the parliament
speaker Aziz Dweik, vowing to continue targeting Hamas until
militants free the soldier.
Haneya said, "Cutting financial aids to the government, and
detaining speaker of the parliament, the Hamas lawmakers and the
ministers would never break our determination and would never force
us to surrender."
A Palestinian analyst in Gaza Ahmed Oudeh said, "This kind of
financial pressure has affected neither the Hamas leaders nor the
Hamas-led government's officials, but unfortunately, it hurt the
Palestinian people and deepened their suffering."
He continued that "Hamas can't challenge the whole world and the
highest interests of the Palestinian people. It should sooner or
later recognize the peace initiatives and international
legitimacy."
"There is the Arab peace initiative that Hamas should recognize,
and there is also the document of national accordance issued by
leaders of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails that Hamas should
completely adopt," said Oudeh.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2006)
