The European Union said Friday it has begun paying "social allowances" to 625,000 Palestinians left unpaid and poor because of the financial crisis besetting the Hamas-led Palestinian government.The funds — made through a program overseen by the World Bank — bypass the Palestinian government and benefit "those who have suffered a significant loss of income" when much foreign aid and some of the Palestinians' own revenues dried up after Hamas came to power earlier this year.
Besides direct cash payments of about €270 (US$347) to each person, EU money will finance Palestinian health services and utilities, notably fuel to run generators.
Among the 625,000 Palestinians now receiving direct financial support are 11,500 health workers who are no longer receiving their salaries, said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The EU is funneling some €600,000 (US$771,000) a month through the program, launched in July for a three-month period. Ferrero-Waldner said she hoped a review this month would result in its continuation.
In all, the EU has put aside €105 million (US$135 million) to be disbursed through the aid plan. The 25 EU nations are contributing another €60 million (US$77 million).
"We have kept our promise to help relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people during the current crisis," she told reporters before the start of a two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers who considered ways to revive the Middle East peace process after the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Ferrero-Waldner said that, to date, the EU special funding program has paid for, among other things, medical supplies to 413 primary health care centers and 22 hospitals, and the purchase of 1.5 million liters of fuel to run air conditioning and generators at hospitals and water facilities, after the Gaza power plant was knocked out by Israel in July.
Most U.S. and EU foreign aid to the Palestinian government dried up this year because Hamas is seen as a terrorist organization on both sides of the Atlantic. Additionally, Israel has been withholding some US$50 million (US$64 million) a month in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian government.
Also Friday, the EU pledged €50 million (US$64 million) in humanitarian aid to Palestinians at a donors conference in Sweden. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said several other "impressive new pledges" were made at the meeting that focused on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
"I believe today we will take a big step forward" toward raising more than US$200 million (€156 million) for a U.N. emergency appeal to help Palestinians, he said in Stockholm.
And the skim game will proceed apace. Only Arafat was better at it than the EU "leaders" and the UN Vultures.