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Acting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday. (AP)
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Ismail Haniyeh prays inside his house in the Gaza Strip, Sunday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 19, 2006 |
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Israel's Cabinet on Sunday approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority, in a first response to Hamas militants' takeover of the Palestinian parliament, the prime minister's office said.
With the Hamas-dominated parliament sworn in on Saturday, and the group tapped to form the next Palestinian government, the Palestinian Authority has become "a terrorist authority," and all funds to it must be halted, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet.
Israel, he added, "won't have contacts with a government in which Hamas takes part."
The Cabinet rejected even more drastic economic measures recommended by security officials, mindful of possible international reaction. But the withholding of funds Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians still threatened to make life wretched for many Palestinians.
Hamas' new parliament speaker, Abdel Aziz Duaik, denounced the decision as a ploy motivated by Israel's March 28 elections. "This is a wrong decision, and the Israelis must reconsider it," Duaik said.
Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings. Since sweeping Jan. 25 Palestinian elections, it has refused to cave in to international pressure to disarm and recognize Israel's right to exist.
On Sunday, Hamas nominated the pragmatic Ismail Haniyeh to be its prime minister, a move that could be intended to put a more moderate face on the group as it readies to take power.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was expected to travel to the Gaza Strip later Sunday to formally charge Haniyeh with the task of putting together a new Cabinet.
Haniyeh said a Hamas delegation would begin consultations with possible coalition partners on Monday.
The Israeli Cabinet's decision Sunday means Israel will halt the transfer of about $50 million in taxes it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinians under a 1994 economic accord. That money accounts for nearly half of the Palestinian Authority's payroll, and could compromise the ability of the Palestinian government - the largest employers in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria - to pay salaries.
Should the government find itself unable to meet its payroll, it could be forced to fire tens of thousands of people, creating even greater volatility and desperation in areas already flush with guns and mired in poverty.
Israel has withheld the tax payments in the past following Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets, putting the money in escrow and eventually transferring it.
"The next payment is to be made in early March, and it won't take place," government spokesman Asaf Shariv said.
Hamas has said it would try to make up any shortfall in part by recruiting money from the Arab and Muslim world.
Hamas' stunning electoral victory - capturing 74 of 132 seats in its first run for parliament -caught Israel unprepared. Over the past week, officials have been hammering out a policy that would have to walk a fine line between creating pressure on the Palestinians and their new leaders, without making life for ordinary Palestinians so wretched that it would compromise Israel's international campaign to shun Hamas.
"The international community will have an easier time standing as a united front if the civilian's population's situation is sounder," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said after Sunday's Cabinet meeting.
The West has supported Israel's campaign against Hamas, threatening to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars that it funnels to the Palestinians annually unless Hamas recognizes Israel and renounced terrorism.
In addition to halting the transfers, the Cabinet also decided to ask the international community to stop its aid to the Palestinians, though it said humanitarian aid should continue as long as donors guarantee the money won't be used for terrorist attacks.
Livni said the government's policy was to distinguish between civilian, humanitarian cases and the Palestinian Authority.
"One can assume that the lifestyle (of the Palestinians) will change, even though this is not the aim of the government of Israel," Livni said. "But we are dealing with new processes in the Palestinian Authority, processes that from our perspective are very problematic and unacceptable."
Even deeper misery could have been expected from Defense Ministry proposals, which ranged from a ban on Palestinian laborers entering Israel to a possible wide-ranging blockade of Palestinian exports. Almost all Palestinian exports from Gaza must pass through Israeli crossings.
Hamas is taking over from Abbas' long-ruling Fatah Party, which fell out of favor because of its failure to eradicate corruption and lawlessness on Palestinian streets.
Abbas, elected separately last year to a four-year term, remains in office, and has taken recent stops to consolidate his power. On Saturday, he pointedly told the militant group that he intends to carry on with his peacemaking agenda.
Hamas immediately said negotiations with Israel were not on its agenda, but both the militants and Abbas said they would try to talk through their differences. Talks between Abbas and Hamas leaders were scheduled to take place on Sunday.
In other news, an Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence on Sunday, military officials said. Two militants from the small Popular Resistance Committees were killed, Palestinians said.
Haniyeh wins nomination for prime minister
Ismail Haniyeh, a prominent Hamas lawmaker in the Gaza Strip seen as a leader of the group's pragmatic wing, was nominated Sunday to be Palestinian prime minister.
Haniyeh, 43, confirmed to reporters Sunday that he had been nominated for the post, a day after being sworn into the new Hamas-led Palestinian parliament. Hamas first announced the appointment, which was widely expected, in a text message.
Born in Gaza's Shati refugee camp, Haniyeh graduated from Gaza City's Islamic University in 1987 with a degree in Arabic literature and became a close associate of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Haniyeh was expelled by Israel to south Lebanon in 1992, returned to Gaza a year later and became the dean of the Islamic University. In 1998, he took charge of Yassin's office.
A pragmatist, he served as a liaison between Hamas and Palestinian Authority, established in 1994 and dominated by the rival Fatah movement.
He rose to prominence after Israel's assassinations in 2004 of Yassin and Yassin's successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Haniyeh, who escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in June 2003, has been a member of the political leadership of Hamas since the 1990s.
AP contributed to this report.
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