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After obtaining US$100 million in economic aid from Japan's PM Junichiro Koizumi, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas intends to request more money from the U.S., only this time "given directly to the Palestinian administration" instead of through aid organizations. (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 17, 2005 |
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The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Yosef Mishlav has recommended that Israel take an active part in the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy following the evacuation of the Gaza Strip.
According Maj. Gen. Mishlav's recommendations, Israel would continue to allow Palestinian workers to enter Israel; and the Palestinian Authority would in turn, turn the Neveh Dekalim area into a tourist area, where Israel would in turn refrain from demolishing evacuated settler homes.
The details of Mishlav's plan -- including the reccommendation that some 35,000 Palestinian workers should be given entry to Israel until 2008; the quota of merchants with entry permits should be increased and they should be granted VIP status -- have already been presented to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Quriea and have already appeared in the World Bank's recommendations for the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy.
Other recommendations include Israeli responsibility for electricity supply to the Gaza Strip with international funding; settler homes will not be demolished; rather than destroying 4,500 dunams of hothouses Mishlav says they should be handed over to the Palestinians as a running business.
On the Palestinian side, factories in the Erez, Neveh Dekalim and Karni industrial zones would remain active, a large tourist area will be built in Neveh Dekalim. The plan also envisions setting up an international fund for unemployment pensions and the construction of waste disposal zones.
In the meantime, the Israel Defense Forces' Civil Administration in the West Bank has decided that its representatives would meet with Hamas local authority heads elected in the West Bank and Gaza, if Hamas officials ask for such meetings.
"Meetings with any elected authority head who is not involved in terror are allowed if the need arises, so as to solve problems and help the Palestinian authorities," said sources in the West Bank and Gaza Strip liaison office. They also said ties to terror would not be tolerated.
Hamas leaders in Gaza and the West Bank on Monday denied an Israel Radio report that contact had already been made between Civil Administration officers and Hamas local authority heads, but differed on whether meetings could be held in the future.
"There is no obstacle to meetings like this, since they are intended to provide services for Palestinian residents and make the occupation easier for them, but they are not considered political negotiations between Hamas and Israel," said Sheikh Hassan Yusuf, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank.
Several local authority heads from Hamas have said that there is nothing preventing such meetings, although they prefer to hold them through the Palestinian Authority's liaison services rather than directly with Israel.
The cooperation really is necessary. For instance, if meetings are not held on joint projects planned for the West Bank city of Qalqilyah and the nearby Israeli city of Kfar Sava, Palestinian residents could end up losing out because they would not have had any input. All the council members in Qalqilyah are Hamas members.
But Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Hamas forbids its members from holding any meetings with Israel. "These reports are lies," he said in reaction to the radio report, "and they are part of the attempt to influence the results of the upcoming elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council and blacken the image of Hamas in the Palestinian street. Hamas forbids any type of meeting with Israel."
In the meantime, the PA just received a US$100 million aid package from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, for which PA Chairman Abbas promised to instill political and security reforms.
Abbas also took the opportunity to to switch the focus onto Israel, saying, "the Israelis must suspend the building of the fence, as well as West Bank construction."
On another front, Abbas said Hamas has accepted the upcoming Palestinian elections and will field candidates in the poll. "This is necessary for implementation of pluralism," he said. "Hamas is not a threat for us."
The Palestinian leader said Tuesday that securing direct U.S. economic assistance for his administration would be a key item on his agenda during an upcoming visit to Washington.
Abbas, speaking in Japan during a three-day visit, said that until now the United States has not given aid directly to the Palestinian Authority. "I plan to request that economic assistance be given directly to the Palestinian administration," instead of through aid organizations and other third parties, Abbas told reporters in Tokyo.
Abbas said the Palestinian Authority has the capability of administering such funds itself and that funneling the aid directly would help promote "transparency."
Abbas heads to Washington next week for his first visit to the U.S. since he was elected in January, and is to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on May 26. The two leaders are also expected to focus on Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the future of the long-stalled "roadmap" peace plan.
Questioned by reporters on those issues, Abbas said they were important but had to be considered part of broader efforts to achieve peace in the region.
"I believe there may be some in Israel who believe that the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip will be the first and last thing that is done. I pray this is not the case. If that is the case, it will only fan the conflict. To achieve a comprehensive peace, all problems must be resolved," Abbas said.
The AP contributed to this report.
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