RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 April 2006 — Masked gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades yesterday briefly occupied the Palestinian prime minister’s West Bank offices to demand benefits from the cash-strapped Hamas government.
Around two dozen militants forced their way into the downtown building in the middle of a video-conference linking senior civil servants based in the West Bank town with their counterparts in Gaza City, while storming the transport ministry at the same time, security sources and witnesses told AFP.
Although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, new Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has had to operate out of Gaza as a result of travel restrictions imposed on the new Hamas-led administration.
The gunmen took over the offices for around an hour but were later persuaded to end their protest peacefully when a large number of reinforcements from the security services were sent to the scene.
One of the ringleaders said the protest was staged to demand the restoration of recently revoked benefits, including permits, which enable the families of people killed in the ongoing Palestinian uprising to travel free by taxi. The gunmen also want the government to carry out previous pledges to provide jobs for militants who are wanted by the Israeli authorities.
“We had phoned the transport minister (Ziad Al-Zhazha) but he refused to give us any answer to our demands,” local Al-Aqsa leader Moin Alawna told AFP.
“For the last two weeks he had been promising that around 500 families of martyrs and of prisoners would be given permits but today he said: ‘Go and do what you want as I can’t give you anything.’”
Alawna said that the deputy prime minister Nasserdine Al-Shaer had also pulled out of a meeting to discuss their grievances.
“Now we will close all the Palestinian ministries if they do not give us positive answers to our demands,” he added.
Al-Aqsa followers, nominally loyal to the former ruling Fatah faction and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas, have raided government buildings with an increasing frequency in recent months to demand jobs and benefits.
The Palestinian Authority is in the grip of an acute financial crisis at the moment because of cuts in direct aid payments by both the European Union and the United States.
Israel has also stopped handing over customs duties to the government, worth around $50 million a month, while it is led by a movement which refuses to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist and advocates violence.
Most of the 140,000 civil servants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have not received their March salaries as a result.
The Palestinian security services are mainly staffed by Fatah loyalists and the United Nations has warned failure to pay their salaries could lead to confrontations with the Hamas-led government.
Foreign Minister on Fund-Raising Tour in Arab World
In the face of “unjust” fund-cutting by the West, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of the Hamas organization embarks on a fund-raising tour of five Arab nations today, Hamas Syria political bureau deputy head Moussa Abu Marzouk said yesterday.
Abu Marzouk said that European and US pressure on Hamas was “unjust” both to the Palestinian people and to their cause.
“Pressure is the wrong way, as (the West) should deal with the Palestinian people as it is,” he said.
He added that there was a “real chance for the region to enjoy peace and tranquility if they deal with the Palestinian government and people with responsibility and justice.”
