Gaza police stage violent protest

[WUOrevolt]

Gaza police stage violent protest

Officers say their wages are two weeks late
Police in Gaza have held a violent protest at the new Hamas government's failure to pay their wages.
Up to 50 masked officers blocked roads and stormed a government office, firing their weapons in the air from the roof.

They said they were suffering severe financial problems and demanded their wages, now two weeks late.

The new administration is facing a financial crisis as foreign donors cut off aid after Hamas refused to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

Russian pledge

"We warn this is only a first step," Abu Mohammed, a leader of the protesters in the central town of Khan Younis, the focus of the demonstration, told news agency Reuters.

We don't have enough to pay salaries

Omar Abdel-Razek
Palestinian finance minister


In pictures: Police protest
Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razek of Hamas blamed the cash crisis on the decision to cut international aid.

"They all know that the account is empty ... and we don't have enough to pay salaries," he told al-Jazeera television station.

Hamas claims it inherited an administration with more than $1.3bn (£740m) in government debt.

The US and EU have cut off aid after Hamas took power on 30 March over the militant group's political stance.

The US Treasury has also banned American citizens from doing business with the Hamas-led authority.

Meanwhile, Iran has urged the Muslim world to help fund the cash-strapped authority.

Russia has promised to provide emergency financial aid - although it was not immediately clear how much.

Many of the protesters belonged to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, Hamas's political rival, say reports.

Our correspondent in Gaza says Hamas may suspect the police protest also had a political edge.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4912306.stm

[WUOrevolt]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563428_ak47_416ap.jpg

Police in the Gaza Strip have staged a protest at the new Hamas administration's failure to pay their salaries

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563438_masked416ap.jpg

The off-duty officers said they were experiencing financial hardship and demanded their wages.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563430_arafat416ap.jpg

The protesters closed the main road between the south and the north Gaza Strip.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563440_office416afp.jpg

The protest was the first sign of serious discontent with the new government since it took office two weeks ago.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563442_roof416ap.jpg

Some of the police protesters discharged their weapons in the air from the rooftop of a government building.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41563000/jpg/_41563436_market416ap.jpg

The new administration is facing a financial crisis as foreign donors have cut off aid.

[Horatii]

I realize that HAMAS has a militant stance, but how is depriving its citizens of necessities going to harbor anything other than militant hatred of the West? They're just driving the Middle East further into the arms of Islamism.

[321zero]

I realize that HAMAS has a militant stance, but how is depriving its citizens of necessities going to harbor anything other than militant hatred of the West?

First HAMAS wants to "drive the middle east into the arms of Islamism." They are after all Islamists.

Second, it is not HAMAS policy to deprive it's 'citizens'. The USA and Europe, at the request by the Israelis, have cut off aid to the Palestinians, and the Israelis are withholding the taxes extorted from Palestinians at the border to the occupied territories.

(Actually 'citizens' is probably the the wrong word - the PA is not a state, or even a parliament in the proper sense. It's more a sock puppet so the Israelis can pretend to have a negotiating partner - or not.)

The Israelis are doing this because they can. In the present climate they can get away with punishing the Palestinians for their election of HAMAS. It is a deliberate policy of starvation.

"The [Israeli government] Hamas team had not laughed so much in a long time. The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter. And, indeed, why not break into laughter and relax when hearing such a successful joke? If Weissglas tells the joke to his friend Condoleezza Rice, she would surely laugh too."

From http://www.counterpunch.com/levy02202006.html

An appointment with a dietician <giggle>, they&#39;ll be in demand as catwalk models <snort>, a metre of cloth will go further now <titter>.

Official Israeli &#39;humour&#39; isn&#39;t very funny. It&#39;s the laughter of the sadistic oppressor, the very antithesis of the self-aware Jewish humour which helped make life in the ghetto easier to bear.

[Horatii]

Second, it is not HAMAS policy to deprive it&#39;s &#39;citizens&#39;. The USA and Europe, at the request by the Israelis, have cut off aid to the Palestinians, and the Israelis are withholding the taxes extorted from Palestinians at the border to the occupied territories.

(Actually &#39;citizens&#39; is probably the the wrong word - the PA is not a state, or even a parliament in the proper sense. It&#39;s more a sock puppet so the Israelis can pretend to have a negotiating partner - or not.)

Thats...what I said...



The Israelis are doing this because they can. In the present climate they can get away with punishing the Palestinians for their election of HAMAS. It is a deliberate policy of starvation.

Big bad zionists keep killing all my family&#33;

[321zero]

Oh yeah, for some reason I read your first bit as saying Hamas was depriving its citizens. Excuse me.

[Vinny Rafarino]

What do you expect when a country decides to vote into political office a group of people whose knowlwdge of politics is limited to the best locations to send a suicide bomber in order to maximise casualties.

At this rate the people of Palestine will be sending human bombs over to the Hamas headquarters in 6 months.

[bolshevik butcher]

Look the palisttinean people voted for hamas because they were the only alternative to the corrupt PLO. Hammas are middle class clerics, so they haven&#39;t &#39;sold out&#39; the palistinean people, it&#39;s not like they were social democracts who ever claimed to stand for the working class. It&#39;s not like the chavez government or something, they have an islamist outloook.

[Janus]

The USA and Europe, at the request by the Israelis, have cut off aid to the Palestinians, and the Israelis are withholding the taxes extorted from Palestinians at the border to the occupied territories.
Well, some of the other Arabic countries like Qatar and Iran are providing more aid in order to help out Hamas.

It seems that things in this area are heating up.Tel Aviv suicide bomb kills nine (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4915868.stm)

Israel is holding Hamas and the PA responsible while Hamas has declared it an act of self-defense. If more bombings occur then we are likely to see a greater conflict erupt.

[Intifada]

Originally posted by Bill [email protected] 17 2006, 07:30 PM
What do you expect when a country decides to vote into political office a group of people whose knowlwdge of politics is limited to the best locations to send a suicide bomber in order to maximise casualties.

At this rate the people of Palestine will be sending human bombs over to the Hamas headquarters in 6 months.
The words of a person who knows fuck all about the situation in Occupied Palestine.