On Facebook, many people list their relationship status as “complicated.” So too is the off again, on again, off again relationship between the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. Two weeks ago, the unity government dissolved. But that was two weeks ago. Today, Fatah and Hamas are talking about getting together again to form another union. Click here to read the story.
Israelis sometimes get anxious over talk of unity between Hamas and Fatah. Gaza and the West Bank. Because, to many, a divided Palestinian community, both geographically and politically, makes it less of a threat to Israel. They’ve agreed, so they say, to work toward unity. But reality on the ground is a different story altogether. Evidenced by the suppression of a youthful demonstration in Gaza calling for unity.
In an interview on the official Palestinian Authority TV channel to mark International Women’s Day, Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad said that Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in Israel, and female suicide bombers Wafa Idris and Rim Al-Riyashi were “role models.”
By RABBI ELLIOT B. GERTZEL
Was Hamas – or a Hamas/Fatah team – behind a suicide car bombing that killed over 30 Egyptian soldiers at a Sinai checkpoint? Egypt reportedly plans to clear peaceful civilians out of Sinai and to pursue the terrorists with Apache attack helicopters, in order to secure a buffer zone between the Gaza strip and Sinai. Did peace-wary Palestinians attack Egypt just before cease-fire talks were to resume between the Hamas/Fatah coalition and Israel?
Click here to read the commentary.
By ANAV SILVERMAN
Tazpit News Agency
JERUSALEM – Violent clashes today between Hamas and Palestinian Authority employees at ATM machines in Gaza, Reuters and other news agencies are reporting. Unlike their PA colleagues, disappointed Hamas employees had discovered that they were not paid salaries from the new unity administration, which was officially inaugurated on Monday.
Hamas public employees, who have not been paid in weeks, were hoping that the unity government under the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation pact would reinstate their incomes. A spokesman for the unity government stated that a committee had yet to vet the Hamas employees before they could be added to the payroll of the new leadership.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has been paying some 70,000 public employees in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terror organization violently overtook the coastal enclave in 2007, forcing Fatah out. Hamas has 40,000 civil servants and security personnel on its payroll.
Gaza banks were forced to close to prevent further fighting according to a Gaza Interior spokesman.
“You call this reconciliation? We should all eat or no one does!” shouted one employee of the former Hamas-run government, Reuters reported.
“Why is it our fault? Go ask your Hamas leaders who signed the deal – why prevent us from feeding our families?” retorted a PA civil servant.
Ma’an News Agency further reported that the PA employees in Gaza had been prevented from withdrawing salaries by Hamas officers.
“Thugs and gangsters of Hamas are preventing civil servants from withdrawing their salaries. They are firing gunshots, beating citizens and smashing ATM machines,” Adnan Dmeiri, the spokesman for PA security forces told Ma’an.
According to the report, one Hamas officer told a PA employee waiting an ATM machine central Gaza that “no one can receive a salary before we receive our salaries.”
The Hamas government has faced a cash shortage since Egypt closed the Hamas border smuggling tunnels. The two rival parties are attempting to resolve the crisis, as Palestinian officials hope that the payroll of the former Hamas government will be met with international donor funds given to the PA.
