GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Gaza's Hamas rulers ordered census workers Sunday to halt the first Palestinian population count in a decade, derailing a rare joint endeavor with the rival Fatah movement.Hamas had agreed to cooperate with the census, which is being conducted by President Mahmoud Abbas' rival government in the West Bank. But Hamas officials on Sunday shut down the Gaza census office, saying the surveyors had violated an agreement to share their data with Hamas as it is collected. "Data can't just be given to one side and not the other," said Mohammed Madhoun, an official in Gaza's Hamas government. "The government wants to make use of it for its future projects."
But census officials said no political factions could see the data until the census was complete.
Demographics play a central role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jews are a solid majority inside Israel, roughly 80 percent of the population of 7 million. There are an estimated 3.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and about 1.7 million Arab citizens of Israel.
Palestinians had said they hoped the first census since 1997 would help them in future peace talks with Israel. The census at first had escaped the Hamas-Fatah rivalry because of their common interest in the count.
| But you knew the Paleos wouldn't make that last. And they didn't. |
Loai Shabana, head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, accused Hamas of ruining what was meant to be an apolitical effort. "This is blatant and unjustified interference that sabotages a professional endeavor," Shabana, who is appointed by the president, said from his West Bank office. He added that the data is off limits to all political factions until it is complete. "No lawmaker or government official can get a peak at our records. This would ... undermine our credibility," he said. "I wish they let national interest prevail, and not let temporary problems between Hamas and Fatah ruin a strategic project."