RAMALLAH, WEST BANK -- For the top Hamas man in the West Bank, it isn't a shock that Western countries have begun cutting funding and ties to the Palestinian Authority. But it was surprising for him to see Canada go first.
‘Canada and the Palestinians used to be very close friends together,’ said Nasser Shaer, a Hamas member who was sworn in this week as the new deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. With prime minister Ismail Haniyeh confined to the Gaza Strip -- barred by Israel from travelling to Ramallah -- Mr. Shaer is effectively the head of the Hamas-led government in the West Bank.
‘We hope to stay friends, but they are just following America and Israel. All the Palestinians are very disappointed. What's happening? What's going on? We are a people under occupation. We need help,’ he said in an interview. ‘Did we do anything? Has something happened that was done by Palestinians?’
Mr. Shaer said he knew that Canada had elected a new Conservative government, but was nonetheless stunned to see Ottawa taking such a hard line toward the new Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority. Canada, like the United States and Israel, considers Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organization.
‘They have the same policies now,’ he said, referring to Canada and the United States. ‘I don't know what happened.’
The interview itself reflected the new legitimacy Hamas has gained, at least in Palestinian society. Where six months ago meeting senior Hamas members meant sitting in a Gaza safe house, much of the new Hamas cabinet was gathered for coffee yesterday at the City Inn, a three-star hotel in central Ramallah.
Canada has joined only Israel, so far, in suspending aid and ties to the PA. Yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was reviewing its Palestinian aid programs and would soon decide what programs to freeze. ‘The principle is very clear,’ she said. ‘We're not going to fund a Hamas-led government, provide funding to a Hamas-led government.’
Meanwhile, the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, warned that about $1-billion (U.S.) in aid would ‘inevitably’ be affected if Hamas didn't recognize Israel and enter peace negotiations.
International aid makes up more than half of the Palestinian Authority's annual budget. Even without an aid cut, the PA was on the verge of bankruptcy, and is expected to have trouble paying March salaries to its 140,000 employees.
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday that Canada was suspending direct aid worth about $7.3-million annually until Hamas agrees to ‘respect existing agreements to follow the road map to recognize Israel as a state and to renounce all violence.’ He said that humanitarian aid given to the Palestinians through the UN and various non-governmental agencies, worth about $17-million, would not be affected.
Mr. Shaer said the conditions on the direct aid were unfair, since Canada wasn't making any demands of Israel, which has militarily occupied the West Bank since 1967, and still retains a chokehold on the economy of the Gaza Strip.
The former professor of Islamic studies, who wears business attire and sports a neat mustache, said that since Israel wasn't following the Quartet-sponsored road map to a negotiated settlement, and didn't recognize the Palestinian right to sovereignty, Hamas couldn't be expected to either. He charged that while Hamas has largely respected the ceasefire agreed to last year by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has repeatedly broken it.
Hamas has kept to the ceasefire, but other militant groups have not. Yesterday the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an off-shoot of Hamas's political rival, Fatah, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the West Bank outside the Jewish settlement of Kedumim, Agence France-Presse reported. The blast killed the bomber and three Israelis.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, applauded the Canadian move against Hamas, as well as the warning from the Quartet. He said Hamas, which has carried out dozens of bombings in Israeli cities, deserves to be treated like an international pariah. ‘There's an emerging international consensus that an unreformed Hamas is not a partner for political dialogue and is not a recipient for international aid.’
The only thing that would definitely be lost, Mr. Shaer said, was Canada's influence and good reputation with the Palestinians.
‘I want to be frank. We will not beg. It's up to Canada and America to decide what to do,’ he said. ‘But if we cannot get money to our people, and they suffer and suffer, do you think they will be happy or angry? Do you think they will turn that anger against their own government, or against the West and Israel?’