The European Union on Monday considered sending $143 million in emergency aid to the Palestinians before a Hamas-led government takes office, but kept silent on what to do once the militant group is in power. Both the United States and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist group and European governments are at pains to reconcile that with the fact that Hamas was the clear winner of the January 25 Palestinian elections. The EU is taking a wait-and-see attitude. „We need to have some patience now” to allow for government formation talks, said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. „Later on we’ll have to decide what comes next.”
On arrival at an EU foreign ministers meeting, Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said „the issue before the European Union … is whether we resume aid to the existing interim (Palestinian) Authority, not to any Hamas government which has yet to be sworn in.” „The World Bank has recommended that full disbursements to the Palestinian Authority be resumed. That is the position which the British government is taking.” The EU foreign ministers debated an urgent aid plan to prevent the financial collapse of the Palestinian Authority: $48 million to pay the Palestinian Authority’s energy and other utility bills, and $76 million for health an education projects. The energy bills would be „paid directly to the utility companies concerned, including those in Israel,” said Ferrero-Waldner. She added this would provide financial relief for „about two months.” The $76 million for health and education would be paid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides education, health care, social services and emergency aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The remainder of the $143 million would come from EU money in a World Bank trust fund for the Palestinians. In 2005, it paid $83 million into that fund, but only half was spent as the Palestinian Authority failed to meet some good-governance criteria last year. In a statement, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, welcomed the aid even as the EU was still debating it.He said it showed the failure of „American-Israeli efforts to tighten the economic siege on the Palestinians and the incoming (Hamas-led) government.” There is concern the Palestinian Authority will collapse without international aid and that Iran could fill any funding gap, further radicalizing the Palestinians and reducing Western influence. Kadima split over Abbas The EU meeting comes as a public disagreement has arisen among Kadima’s leaders regarding how to deal with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio on Sunday that Abbas was „irrelevant.” But Shimon Peres, who is number two on the party’s Knesset slate, said Sunday at a function in Miami that „Israel must continue to talk with Abu Mazen [Abbas], since he is responsible for contacts with Israel and for the Palestinians’ foreign policy.” The British Telegraph newspaper reported Monday that France is spearheading the diplomatic move to unblock the funds. The move is also said to be backed by the European commission. The paper quoted unnamed French officials as saying that the French government wanted „the money freed immediately, and handed over in one block, as part of a strategy of reaching out to Hamas.” French officials have expressed hopes that Hamas’ victory in the January elections for the Palestinian parliament will have a moderating influence on the organization, which had taken a leading role over the past decade in terror attacks on Israel. The EU blocked the funds, which make up half of the EC’s 2005 allocation to the Palestinians, over widespread corruption and mismanagement by the Fatah-run PA.
BPI-info
BPI-info
