[QODLink]
Middle East
PA minister returns with cash
Palestinian minister carries cash back home to beat a Western aid freeze.
Last Modified: 29 Nov 2006 09:32 GMT

Western donors have cut financial aid to the Palestinians

Mahmoud Zahar, the Palestinian foreign minister, has crossed into the Gaza Strip from Egypt with $20 million.
 
Security sources said Zahar, who was returning to the Palestinian territories after a tour of Arab and Islamic countries, crossed the Rafah border with the money in a suitcase on Tuesday.
Palestinian officials have resorted to carrying cash into the territories after Western donors cut financial aid when Hamas took the helm of the Palestinian government in March, leaving tens of thousands of civil servants without pay in months.

Palestinian officials have resorted to carrying cash into the territories after Western donors cut financial aid

Send us your views

Western countries have demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel's right to exist as a condition for lifting the boycott.
 
Earlier this month, Arab foreign ministers vowed to ignore the aid freeze imposed on the Palestinian Authority and start stepping up payments.
 
Israel withdrew its troops from the border a year ago following a deal tasking the European Union with monitoring the Rafah crossing.
 
But Israel has complained of arms smuggling and imposed frequent closures.
Source:
Agencies
Featured on Al Jazeera
An unflinching portrait of physical labour in the 21st century.
The stark choice between a fascist or an imperialist course in Syria should be discarded for a third and better course.
Israel's propaganda machine carefully chooses its words to assert illegal ownership over Jerusalem and Palestine.
As Western fears grow over Iran's continuing nuclear programme, we ask how a military strike could impact the region.
<  > 
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go