Israel has decided to freeze funds to the Palestinian Authority, fearing the money could end up aiding terrorist elements, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday.
”It must be made very clear, we are not going to transfer funds which could finance terrorist attacks against our civilians,” Olmert said on public radio.
Two million shekels ($35-million) were due to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday.
The action came after the radical Islamist Hamas group’s stunning election victory in Palestinian legislative elections last week.
Hamas, responsible for most of the anti-Israeli suicide attacks during the current Palestinian intifada, or uprising, has refused to disarm and espoused the destruction of Israel as part of its charter.
The blocked funds essentially correspond to sales tax revenues and customs duties levied on imported products coming into the Palestinian territories and transitting Israel.
Olmert made his statement following a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was on a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
The European Union was to seek Monday to hammer out a response to Hamas’s shock election win, amid a blunt warning the bloc could cut huge aid payouts if the new Palestinian leadership threatens Israel.
Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of Palestinians want Hamas to drop its call for the destruction of Israel, according to an opinion poll released on Monday.
The survey by the Ramallah-based Near East Consulting institute also found that 84% of those surveyed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip want a peace agreement with Israel while 86% want the moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to remain in his post.
While Hamas’s international reputation is based on its campaign of attacks against Israel, its popularity in the West Bank and Gaza stems in part from its providing a safety net for some of the most impoverished Palestinians.
Rather than indicate backing for Hamas’s hardline tactics, the survey found that a total of 73% of respondents believe Hamas should ”change its position on the elimination of the state of Israel”.
Not only did an overall 84% support a peace agreement with Israel, but 77% of Hamas voters also wanted a settlement.
Israel has ruled out any prospect of negotiating with a Hamas government which refuses to accept its right to exist and continues to advocate violence, even though Hamas has not carried out any attacks for over a year.
A total of 1 200 people were questioned in the survey which has a 3,5% margin of error. – AFP
