Palestinian civil servants paid
04/07/2007| IslamWeb
Thousands of Palestinian civil servants have received their first full salaries in 17 months after
About 170,000 employees have received only part of their wages since March 2006 due to a Western economic boycott and
Relieved Palestinians gathered at banks and cash machines across the
Many of them have run up sizeable debts over the past months and much of their salaries will go to paying these.
"This is the first time I received my complete salary in more than a year," Jasser Sbai, an agriculture ministry employee in the West Bank city of
"Unfortunately most of this salary will go to the electricity company and shops because I owe them too much," he added, surrounded by more than 50 Palestinians waiting to use the cash machine.
Debts
Ruba Hamad, who has an entire year's rent payment outstanding, said: "The problem is how to solve what happened in previous months. We need another month's salary to cover all of our debts."
The salary payments will be a boost to the emergency government sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, after he dismissed the Hamas-led unity government, which took control of the Gaza Strip last month.
Officials have not said how many Palestinians would receive their pay cheques on Wednesday, but the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip said that up to 23,000 civil servants will miss out because of their links with the group.
"The Fayyad [the new prime minister] government's decision not to give thousands of employees their salaries enforces the political and geographical separation of Palestinian people," Sami Abu Zurhi, Hamas spokesman, said.
Hamas has not said whether its administration which effectively controls the Gaza Strip would take any steps to pay those workers.
Members of the Fatah-dominated security services in
PHOTO CAPTION
Palestinians gathered at bank to collect their money