2009-03-02

Billions In Gaza Aid To Be Funneled To Abbas And The Palestinian Authority And Skimmed By The Israelis

by Sue Pleming and Will Rasmussen

from The Independent

International donors are set to pledge at least $3bn (£2.1bn) in aid to the Palestinian Authority today mainly to rebuild Gaza, while shunning the battered territory's democratically elected Hamas rulers.

Delegates from some 87 countries and financial organisations have converged on the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh for an international conference called by Egypt after the end of Israel's three-week assault on Gaza in January.

The Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's rival, had hoped to raise $2.78bn at the one-day event, including $1.33bn for repairing damage in Gaza. But expected pledges from the United States, the European Union and Gulf Arab states exceed that amount.

Aid agencies say political and logistical problems, such as the illegal Israeli-led blockade on the Gaza Strip, are likely to make efforts to use the funds raised at the event to rebuild the coastal enclave a daunting task.

"Money is very important but it is not going to solve the problem unless there is pressure from the international community on Israel to open all (border) crossings with Gaza," said Gasser Abdel-Razek, a spokesman for Oxfam International.

Israel and Hamas are not present at the conference. The Jewish state says it supports efforts to help Palestinians in Gaza, but wants assurances the aid money would not reach the area's democratically elected government (Hamas).

"We definitely don't want to see the goodwill of the international community exploited by Hamas and serve Hamas's extremist purposes, such as pushing for an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine" said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"And therefore it is crucial that mechanisms will be in place to ensure the money bypasses the democratially elected government and reaches who it is intended for - the people of the Gaza Strip".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to pledge $300m (£210m) for Gaza reconstruction and $600m to support the Palestinian Authority's budget shortfalls, economic reforms and security and private sector projects run by the PA.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the money earmarked to Gaza will be channelled through the United Nations and other organisations, but not Hamas.

"The democratically elected government is not getting any of this money," Wood told reporters late on Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The European Commission said last week it planned to pledge €436m (£385m). The money would be also earmarked to Gaza and the reforms of the Palestinian Authority.

The West shuns Hamas because it refuses to accept the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, renounce violence in response to Israel military assaults  and commit to interim peace deals between Israel and the Palestinian government's minority party, Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.

Gulf Arab states plan to pledge $1.65bn in aid over up to five years to rebuild Gaza. They said other Arab countries could join their plan.

But it remains unclear whether Israel would open the border crossings to large quantities of supplies like cement and steel needed to rebuild. Israel refuses the entry of materials it says could be also used by Palestinians for self defence.

Israel turned Gaza into a ghetto after Hamas won internationally supported democratic elections 2007, and says it will closely manage Gaza reconstruction by requiring project-by-project approval and guarantees that projects will not benefit the legitimate government of Palestine.  

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