Palestinian Employees Suffering Mount in Ramadan
President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Tuesday in Gaza with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in an attempt to rescue the coalition agreement, said senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
Haniyeh said Sunday that Hamas is still interested in forming a broader government.’We are going to resume talks on the formation of a national coalition government,’ Haniyeh said in a statement. ‘We have serious intentions to make it succeed, and we hope that the talks will resume soon.’
Haniyeh did not, however, indicate whether Hamas would accept the international community’s position, which calls on the Palestinian government to renounce violence, accept the previous agreements, and recognize Israel. Only two days earlier, Haniyeh said he would never head a coalition that recognizes the Jewish state.
Erekat said it is time for Haniyeh to adopt clear positions.
‘It is not about games of words, it's not about intentions, it's about a clear-cut commitment,’ Erekat said. ‘He must realize that any government must accept the commitments and obligations of the PLO and previous governments, including the letter of mutual recognition.’
During its six months in power, Hamas has been largely unable to pay the salaries of 165,000 civil employees, the backbone of the Palestinian labor force. The Palestinian Authority has been teetering on the brink of collapse, increasingly unable to provide services
According to a recently published survey, a majority of Palestinian government employee said that they ‘can’t take it any more.’
‘There is a tendency towards the collapse of the employment sector’, Samir Hleleh, managing director of British firm Portland Trust which conducted the survey with the Palestinian Economists Association, told reporters.
'Conditions for employees are extremely bad, this is not a political issue nor is it propaganda. The suffering is real'.
The poll showed that 73% of 165,000 government employees could no longer make ends meet. 95% stopped paying their rents, some 40% said they would look for jobs outside government while 22 percent wanted to emigrate.
The survey was published on the Muslim holly month of Ramadan, which began Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza and other parts of the Muslim world. Ramadan is a time of fasting from dawn to dusk, piety and giving to the poor. It’s also a festive month, with large family meals after sundown, social get-togethers and new clothes for everyone.
The severity of the suffering was most evident amongst public sector employees who have not received their salaries for 7 months. For these people shopping has become akin to begging due to the level of debt that they have already accumulated.
But Gaza and the West Bank are poorer than ever, and many will not be able to observe all Ramadan traditions. The U.N. feeds some 1 million of Gaza’s 1.4 million people. One of the U.N. agencies, the World Food Program, added some 60,000 needy people — for a total of 220,000 — to its roster in September alone. Early this week, the European Commission announced that it will pay social allowances to 40,000 most needy Palestinian families. Payments will be made to Palestinians that are normally supported through the social welfare scheme of the Palestinian Authority.
‘These days, I just want to cry,’ said Umm Emad, a mother of six. The only lantern in her house is a paraffin lamp she keeps for Gaza’s frequent power cuts.
Umm Emad, 45, said her husband beat their 10-year-old daughter after she pleaded for a Ramadan lantern. The mother of six, who would not give her real name because she said she is ashamed of being poor, works part-time selling clothes in a relative's shop, for 15 shekels ($3.5 dollars) a day.
Her husband sells clothes at a stand outside a U.N. office. On a good day, makes a profit of 20 shekels ($5). Before Hamas came to power, he earned about 90 shekels ($22 dollars) a day as the owner of a small clothing factory.
‘In the good days, my husband used to buy lanterns for all the children, and the neighbour's children, because their father died, so they wouldn't feel left out,’ she said.
Like many Gazan families, Umm Emad has not yet bought any food for the household, although traditionally this is done a day before Ramadan begins.
Abbas: Israel Should Release Barghouti, Saadat
President Mahmoud Abbas stated Sunday that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is asking for the release of Fatah party leader Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned by Israel since July 2004, and Palestinian Liberation Front Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat, abducted in May in an Israeli raid on a PA prison in Jericho, as part of an agreement to release the Israeli soldier captured June 25th by Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza.
In his statement, made on the Arab satellite channel, the President confirmed that negotiations are taking place, and that the Egyptian government is acting as the chief arbitrator of the prisoner swap.
Israeli sources have stated that there is no way that either of the high -profile political prisoners, Marwan Barghouti or Ahmed Saadat, would be part of a prisoner swap deal. An Israeli official in the Prime Minister's Office said in response to Abbas’ demand that, ‘He can forget about it’.