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Israel Sends Tax Funds to Palestinians
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Tens of thousands of Palestinian civil servants will be paid in full this week for the first time in over a year after Israel released millions of dollars in tax funds frozen during Hamas rule, officials said Sunday.
None of this is going to matter, it just delays the day when the Paleos hit rock bottom.
The transfer of the funds was Israel's first concrete gesture of support for moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in his battle with Hamas, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip last month. Dispensing the salaries allows the West Bank-based government to assert its legitimacy, disputed by the Hamas rulers in Gaza. The salaries will bypass employees hired by Hamas, including the 6,000 members of the militant group's security forces. Security forces in Gaza were told they would be paid only if they stayed home and refused to work under Hamas command.

Under Hamas, the 165,000 government employees had only received irregular, partial payments because of an international aid boycott imposed over the group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

The Israeli government said $119 million were transferred Sunday, and Palestinian officials confirmed they received it. The Israelis said there would be another transfer in coming days.
Since Hamas came to power in March 2006, Israel had frozen roughly $600 million, mostly customs duties that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians under interim peace accords. The tax funds account for roughly half of the Palestinian government's operating budget, and the cutoff had crippled the economy.

"Israel is committed to ... strengthening the new (Palestinian) government and to cooperate fully both in the financial and security realms," said Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

"Some of the actions already taken by the Palestinian government ... will help us to find, slowly and cautiously, paths of cooperation," Olmert said. "At the same time, the war on terror continues and will not cease."
Posted by: Steve White 2007-07-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=192255