The United States is urging Arab states to continue funding a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, even though Washington is threatening to cut its own aid. Western diplomats said on Monday that President George Bush’s administration has already contacted Arab governments that give the Palestinian Authority support and requested them to continue their funding.
The US position behind the scenes contrasts with its public stance, in which Bush has said he will cut aid to the Palestinian Authority unless Hamas renounces violence and stops demanding the destruction of Israel.
The US plea to the Arab world is because it does not want the West Bank and Gaza to descend into chaos as a result of choking off aid. It also fears that if it stops funding the Palestinians, countries such as Iran or Syria could step into the breach, enhancing their image in the Islamic world just as Washington seeks to isolate them.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, speaking to reporters on her flight to London for a series of diplomatic meetings, said: ”We would sincerely hope that people would take the implications of a Palestinian government that would be cut off from assistance and not try to fill that gap.”
Rice held a meeting on Monday night in London with representatives of the Quartet Group — the US, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union — to discuss the dilemma posed by Hamas’s election victory. Afterwards, the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said Hamas has to commit to non-violence, recognise Israel and accept existing peace agreements if aid is to continue. Shortly after his statement, the Arab television channel al-Arabiya reported that Hamas rejected his demands.
Hamas, responsible for most of the suicide bombings against Israel until it accepted a ceasefire last year, won an outright majority in last week’s parliamentary election.
US aid forms only a small part of the £1-billion budget of the Palestinian Authority. The EU is the biggest donor. Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are some of the main Arab funders, either through direct aid or by supporting projects such as training its security forces.
Washington wants to use its aid as a lever to extract concessions from Hamas, but realises that this could backfire politically. It also recognises the humanitarian needs of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. Rice said: ”We will have to look at that on a kind of case-by-case basis in terms of humanitarian needs. We are going to review all our assistance programmes.”
EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday, postponed a decision on funding. They warned Hamas that £280-million of aid to the West Bank and Gaza Strip could be in jeopardy. But the ministers issued a carefully worded statement, which stopped short of making outright demands, in the hope of strengthening the hand of moderate elements in Hamas.
”Violence and terror are incompatible with democratic processes and [we] urged Hamas and all other factions to renounce violence, to recognise Israel’s right to exist and to disarm,” the ministers said. ”[We] expect the newly elected [Palestinian Parliament] to support the formation of a government committed to a peaceful and negotiated solution of the conflict with Israel based on existing agreements.”
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, called for aid to continue. ”I stressed the importance of the continuation of financial and other types of support by the donor countries,” he told a joint news conference on Monday with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who was visiting Ramallah.
Hamas is also appealing to Muslim and Arab states to make up any shortfall in aid to the Palestinian Authority should the US and EU cut off funding.
Writing in Tuesday’s Guardian, Khalid Mish’al, the organisation’s leader in exile, criticises the US and EU for threatening to impose ”collective punishment” on the Palestinians. Mish’al, who is based in Damascus, says the US and EU have failed the test of democracy by threatening to withhold funds from freely elected parliamentary representatives.
He says: ”Our message to the Muslim and Arab nations is this: you have a responsibility to stand by your Palestinian brothers and sisters, whose sacrifices are made on behalf of all of you. Our people in Palestine should not need to wait for any aid from countries that attach humiliating conditions to every dollar or euro they pay, despite their historical and moral responsibility for our plight.
”We expect you to step in and compensate the Palestinian people for any loss of aid and we demand that you lift all restrictions on civil society institutions that wish to fund-raise for the Palestinian cause.” — Guardian Unlimited Â