Unity government pays all Ramallah employees but excludes those in Gaza

There were altercations last night between civil servants in Ramallah and Gaza after the unity government paid May’s monthly salaries to the employees of the former Ramallah government, but not to those employees of the former Hamas government in Gaza.

Eye-witnesses told Quds Press that after the unity government’s Ministry of Finance announced that its employees could receive their salaries by means of ATM machines at banks all over the country, it became evident that only the Palestinian Authority employees were being paid, excluding the Hamas employees in Gaza.

The sources said that altercations also occurred in various areas between the employees of the two former governments with the police having to intervene to take control of the situation. Meanwhile, the banks decided that they would temporarily close all ATMs.

Arabi 21 news website quoted the spokesperson of Gaza’s Interior Ministry, Iyad Al-Bazm, as saying that the problems arouse amongst the employees of the unity government in front of the banks due to the fact that salaries were only paid to some employees, and as a result, the police had to intervene and control the situation in order to protect the citizens and the banks.

The undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance in Gaza, Yousef Al-Kayyali, and the chairman of the Public Employees’ Syndicate in the West Bank, Bassam Zakarneh, both announced in separate statements that a joint committee had met in order to evaluate the matter of the Gaza government employees and to find a way to pay all their salaries.

Ismail Al-Ashqar, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the fact that all the employees from the Ramallah government were paid their salaries, whereas the Gaza government employees were not, is an indication that “the unity government is merely an extension of the Ramallah government, not a new government.”

“This is completely unacceptable and we will not allow a restoration of the division, or any harm to our people’s interests,” he said.

Al-Ashqar added, “Therefore, we urge Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to rectify this dangerous error and to take responsibility for it before our people.” He also refused to allow the unity government to make such a mistake, stressing that, “it is unacceptable for the government to make such an error.”

“The unity government cannot violate the rights of the employees,” he said.