Posted on 05/05/2006 11:36:43 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
EU ready to release Palestinian aid package Document Actions 05/05/2006
The European Commission said Friday that it was ready to offer 34 million euros (43 million dollars) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories, whose government is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel will make the offer to the EU's 25-member states "in the next few days", his spokesman said, adding that the new money would be used for food aid, sanitation, water and health projects.
The European Union is the biggest donor to the Palestinians, many of whom live in poverty, but it suspended direct aid to the government after Hamas took office in March because the militant group refuses to renounce violence or to recognise Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at eubusiness.com ...
excerpt..
The more than 160,000 civil servants on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority, amounting to a wage bill in excess of 120 million dollars a month, have not been paid for two months.
Hamas has since turned to Arab and Muslim countries to keep it afloat.
"At the moment, 4.1 million Palestinians are facing food shortages, around 40 percent of the population," Michel said in an interview in the Friday edition of Belgium's Le Soir newspaper.
He said that "important means" must be mobilised because the "Palestinian Authority's social services are going under."
Since Hamas swept to power, the EU has been searching for ways to channel funds to the Palestinian people without putting it in the hands of the group, which figures on the bloc's terror black list.
The chief spokeswoman for EU external affairs, Emma Udwin, said that the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet -- the EU, United Nations, United States and Russia -- would examine that issue in New York on Tuesday.
"We will meet quartet partners next week in New York and we will be discussing with them the current financial situation; the needs on the Palestinian side, the ways in which the donor community will react," she said.
And guns, bombs, bullets, suicide belts...
Maybe the Pals learned something here. You vote in nothing but a bunch of dirtbag terrorists into office, and what do you get?? Maybe next election they will insist on people who not only care about their country, but are interested in doing something about it...
I don't understand this article. Who is the European Commission? What is their relationship to the EU? What type of meeting has to be held in order to get approval of this funding? Where would the money come from?
Palestinans have been beggars for over 50 years.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04459771.htm
EU to aid Abbas in plan to avert PA collapse
05 May 2006 04:40:00 GMT
JERUSALEM, May 5 (Reuters) - A European Commission proposal to "avert or delay" the Palestinian Authority's collapse calls for pooling donor funds and using President Mahmoud Abbas's office to funnel them to provide basic services, a Commission document shows.
The European Union has frozen direct aid to the Hamas-led Authority, but the April 27 document says the commission intends to provide assistance to bolster Abbas's office in anticipation that it will play the role of go-between.
"With current or even substantially increased levels of funding, the EU will not be able to stave off a crisis but might be able to avert or delay a collapse," the document said.
Western diplomats say the Bush administration has moved in recent days to scuttle the European proposal on the ground that letting it go ahead would take pressure off Hamas to renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by interim peace deals.
But they said the Bush administration has agreed to back an expansion of Abbas's elite presidential guard. The EU would provide the funds for training and equipment.
Hamas officials and some Western diplomats say Washington's goal is to shore up Abbas while making it impossible for the Palestinian Authority to function.
Like proposals floated by Britain and France, the European Commission said donors could establish a pool of funds in coordination with the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.
The money would be funnelled to specific sectors like health and education, bypassing the Hamas-led Authority.
Abbas, whose Fatah faction was trounced by Hamas in parliamentary elections in January, "could act as an interface between the international community and the Palestinian Authority," the document said.
"He would, de facto, play the role of go-between for the international community," it added.
AID TO ABBAS
While the United States and the EU cut aid to the Hamas-led Authority, they have placed no restrictions on aid going through Abbas or his office.
"The commission has already received requests for assistance from President Abu Mazen (Abbas) for capacity building to which it intends to respond favorably," the document said.
The Hamas-led government has yet to pay March and April wages to 165,000 employees. It has been unable to receive funds from abroad because banks fear sanctions by the United States.
Palestinian officials said this week that U.S. pressure on regional and local banks thwarted a Hamas-backed plan for the Arab League to deposit donor funds directly into the accounts of government workers.
The EU document said the financial crisis in the West Bank and Gaza could deepen in the next two to three months, "which will see greatly increased unemployment and poverty levels, and possibly the breakdown of law and order".
"In such a crisis situation the international community will have a strong imperative to intervene," it said. "The dilemma is how to do this without engaging with the PA (Palestinian Authority)", the document said.
Re-routing aid to circumvent Hamas will be a major focus of a meeting of the "Quartet" of international peace mediators -- the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations -- planned in New York on May 9, diplomats said.
While the EU has severed political contacts with the Palestinian Authority, the document said "limited contacts" may be permitted with Hamas-led government ministries and ministers "for specific practical purposes", such as combating the spread of avian flu.
"A full resumption of EU aid at current or even increased levels will not be able to stave off the crisis," the document said. "At most it will provide only minor and temporary alleviation of the plight of the Palestinians."
Really, no other group of people in the world could get away with this.
Civil Servants make $750/month in Palestine? Doesn't sound right. I wonder how much actually reaches the worker.
What happened to "the people" being responsible for the people they elect?
They don't deserve a dime from anyone.
I don't understand this article. Who is the European Commission? What is their relationship to the EU? What type of meeting has to be held in order to get approval of this funding? Where would the money come from?
***
EU, EC, WEU, etc - who knows-
Googled EC funding...
http://europa.eu.int/grants/index_en.htm
http://www.welcomeurope.com/
http://www.uni-ulm.de/LiLL/LiLL_Europa/eu_programme_e.htm
With a GDP per capita of $600 in Gaza and $1,100 in the West Bank it reasonable to assume nothing particularly significant is being accomplished, from an economic standpoint.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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Is that per year? Do you have the source that's from? I'm not doubting its veracity, I just want to check out the numbers some more.
The don't produce much there, even when compared to, say, Sudan at $2,100. It's all aid.
BTW, $9,000 a year salary for a public worker is probably on target.
Thanks.
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