Despite an announcement of a partial salary payment to 40,000 employees,
the Hamas-led government is still short of paychecks to pay the remaining
government employees, which worsened Hamas' rule in the Palestinian territories
as an ultimatum for referendum ends today.
PAYCHECK SHORTAGE
Palestinian Finance Minister Omer Abdel Razeq announced on Saturday that
40,000 government employees who earn less than 350 U.S. dollars will be paid
one-month salary on Monday.
Abdel Razeq also said that the government would pay advances to the remaining
125,000 employees later because the cabinet still has no money to pay them now.
It has been over two months since the Hamas-led government came in power with
a severe financial crisis imposed by major donor countries, due to Hamas'
refusal to meet their conditions, namely recognition of Israel, renouncement of
violence and acceptance of previous peace deals.
Hamas has collected some financial aid from Islamic countries in the past few
months, but the money was suspended because banks were warned of possible
sanctions by the United States if they deal with money transfer to the Hamas-led
government.
A bank official said that his bank didn't receive any formal letter from the
government to begin paying salaries to parts of the employees.
"The mechanism to pay the salaries is not yet in place, so some questions
need to be answered," said the bank official, wondering if the financial
ministry would issue the paychecks or transfer money to the banks.
He clarified that the banks' reservations were due to fears of American
sanctions.
Meanwhile, a Hamas lawmaker suggested a committee to coordinate transferring
money to President Abbas' account and pay the employees via Abbas' office.
In a written statement, Jamal Nassar, head of the financial committee in the
Palestinian Legislative Council, said that he discussed the suggestion with
Abbas' aide.
Nassar added that the Hamas finance minister had no objection regarding the
matter.
The Hamas-led government had earlier opposed a similar plan, accusing Abbas
of trying to bypass the financial ministry. "We are ready to pressurize the
cabinet and push it to accept this initiative," said Nassar, affirming that the
overdue payment became intolerable.
REFERENDUM THREAT
Along with the paycheck shortage, the Hamas-led government is also facing a
political ordeal, because an ultimatum issued by Abbas, which presses Hamas to
either accept a prisoners proposal on making peace with Israel or face a
referendum within 40 days, ends on June 4.
The proposal, or the Document of National Accordance, was prepared by
prominent Palestinian prisoners earlier in May, which called for the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the territories Israel
captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
That proposal was viewed as an implicit recognition of Israel, which is
against Hamas' political charter -- destruction of Israel.
Abbas announced on May 25 on the occasion of a national dialogue among
Palestinian factions that if the factions including Hamas fail to agree the
proposal in 10 days, he would order a referendum, which definitely threatens
Hamas rule, observers said.
On Saturday, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser al-Deenal-Sha'er said
that his Hamas government didn't oppose the referendum in principle, but the
problem was that the time and the way of ordering a referendum.
"The referendum is always ordered on one issue, so ordering a referendum on
18 articles can't be done," he told a news conference.
However, Al-Sha'er hoped that the factions could reach a deal and avoid the
referendum.
"It's unlawful to hold a referendum on decisive issues like the right of
return. The document could be a ground for dialogue, so we prefer to reach an
agreement through national dialogue," said Al-Sha'er.