Posted on 12/09/2006 3:02:58 PM PST by blam
Qatar 'to pay Palestinian wages'
Palestinian civil servants have protested over unpaid wages
Qatar has agreed to pay the salaries of 40,000 Palestinian education workers for several months, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has said. Mr Haniya said the amount would total more than $22m (£11.1m) a month.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government has been struggling to pay its workforce since March when Western donors suspended direct aid.
They want Hamas to renounce violence and to recognise Israel. Hamas has rejected the demands.
The US and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
FOREIGN AID
* April 2006 - September 2006: $420m
* April 2005 - September 2005: $230m
* Source: IMF
The Israeli authorities have also been withholding tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues they collect for the Palestinian government.
Palestinian teachers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip returned to work last month after ending a two-month strike over unpaid wages.
Mr Haniya made the announcement in the Qatari capital, Doha.
He said Qatar was also studying giving an additional $7m per month to the Palestinian health sector.
Qatar has not commented.
Aid increase?
Foreign aid - despite the economic boycott - has still been reaching both the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians.
In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said more foreign aid had been received by the PA over six months - April to September 2006 - than in the same period last year.
The bulk of this aid came from Arab donors - even though most of the money did not go directly to the Hamas-led administration.
Donors deposited the funds in the bank account of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Abbas is the head of the Fatah organisation, which recognises Israel, and is not subject to the economic boycott.
Why does someone else always have to pick up the tab for them? (rhetorical question)
This is great. If Muslim coutries (or individuals of any religion) want to pay for Palestinians I think that's to be encouraged. The West doesn't have to. Win, win.
The palestinians have run out of threats to use against us. What are they going to do, kill us? LOL
They can try.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government has been struggling to pay its workforce since March when Western donors suspended direct aid.A first thought: "They'd rather starve to death than make such concessions". Then I read:They want Hamas to renounce violence and to recognise Israel. Hamas has rejected the demands.
In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said more foreign aid had been received by the PA over six months - April to September 2006 - than in the same period last year.With that kind of economic hardship, it be pretty difficult getting anyone to concede anything.
In any case, it boils down to the matter of seizing the banking/financial assest of the donors. I thought I heard something 'bout that going on some time ago, i.e. the U.S. was clamping down on those affiliates operating within the U.S. whose parent companies were involved in this sort of stuff. But I guess given Condi Rice's recent statements, that's all pretty much quagmire now and cut/run are the watch words for the remainder of the decade.
Qatar has agreed to pay the salaries of 40,000 Palestinian education workers for several months...
Or, you could say they are funding the Palestinian terror network. How does Palestine have 40,000 education workers out of a population of about 2.5 million. That's a ration of one worker for every sixty citizens.
Saw the headline and thought they were paying people in those Flintstones clams.
That's what it really means. These people don't work... when they're not killing, they're beating the bushes for handouts.
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