GAZA, 19 September 2006 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s guards fired into the air yesterday to clear a path through striking workers who mobbed his motorcade in another sign of deep divides on the road to a unity government. The protest outside Parliament forced Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, to cancel a speech to the legislature on how his government was dealing with an economic crisis that has increased poverty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The parliamentary session was suspended when members of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction left the chamber to join the protesters, who chanted “Haniyeh, where are the salaries?” and “Haniyeh go home.” A strike by government employees started on Sept. 2. Some protesters jumped on top of Haniyeh’s car, and the prime minister’s bodyguards and members of a Hamas-led police force responded by firing rifles into the air to force them back. One woman was slightly hurt.
An aid embargo spearheaded by Washington has prevented the Hamas-led government from paying salaries to 165,000 workers since the Islamic group took power in March. The wage bill is around $120 million a month. The workers’ unions are dominated by Fatah, defeated by Hamas in parliamentary elections in January. The strike has shut down hundreds of Palestinian public schools and health clinics. Haniyeh brushed aside the protest as democracy gone too far.
Meanwhile, Israeli prosecutors indicted three Lebanese Hezbollah fighters yesterday on a raft of charges including helping carry out the deadly operation to snatch two soldiers that sparked a war with the Jewish state. The three men, all in their 20s, were also charged with murder, attempted murder and belonging to a terrorist group.
The trial opening in Nazareth District Court reflects Israel’s view that Hezbollah, a resistance group that enjoys broad support in Lebanon and representation in the Beirut government and Parliament, is not a legitimate fighting force. “The defendants are not prisoners of war,” said Justice Ministry spokesman Bishara Farran. Officials said the three — Mahmoud Ali Suleiman, Mohammed Srur and Maher Qurani — were captured in southern Lebanon by Israeli forces during the war.
In another development, an Israeli military court yesterday deferred a decision on whether to release 21 officials from the Palestinian ruling Hamas movement pending the examination of their case. The court at Ofer in the West Bank heard an appeal from military prosecutors against the release of the officials, including parliamentary Speaker Aziz Dweik, who have been charged with membership of a terrorist organization.
Prosecutors argued the officials should remain in custody pending full investigation after they were arrested in a major anti-Hamas crackdown after the June capture of an Israeli soldier, claimed jointly by its armed wing. “The military court postponed its decision,” defense lawyer Jawad Boulos told AFP.
Although the judge heard pleas from both the defense and prosecution, it was not immediately clear when he would announce his ruling. A military judge had last Tuesday ordered the men to be released on bail of 25,000 shekels ($5,700) each while the court continued to examine their cases because he was “not convinced” their continued detention was justified.
