GAZA CITY, 31 January 2006 — Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday urged the international community not to cut vital aid to the Palestinians as the European Union, the biggest aid donor to the territories, insisted on the Palestinian resistance group renouncing violence. US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said a Hamas-led Palestinian government should not expect Western aid as long as it did not recognize Israel.
Ismael Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, promised that foreign aid would go only toward helping ordinary Palestinians and said a Hamas government was ready to have its spending monitored. He also said the group was ready to negotiate the terms of continued foreign aid with the international community.
“We call on you to direct all the aid and revenues to the treasury of the Palestinian Finance Ministry,” he told a news conference. “We send you this message and ask you to deal with our message with an open mind and big responsibility.”
EU foreign ministers met in Brussels and called on Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and disarm. They threatened to cut off financial assistance if the demands were ignored. “The onus is now on Hamas to renounce violence, to accept that the fundamental democratic principle is that matters are pursued by arguments and peacefully and not by violence,” said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
The threats to cut off foreign aid, which makes up nearly half the Palestinian Authority budget, came as Israel decided to freeze funds to the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on public radio: “It must be made very clear, we are not going to transfer funds which could finance terrorist attacks against our civilians.”
Two hundred million shekels ($35 million) are due to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority tomorrow.
Abbas called Israel’s move “severe” and called on European countries not to freeze aid.
