clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Dahlan attacks Abbas over Gaza salary cuts

April 6, 2017 at 10:53 am

Palestinian MP and dismissed Fatah member Mohamed Dahlan yesterday attacked the Palestinian Authority (PA), PLO and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas over a 30 per cent cut of PA salaries in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Resalah newspaper reported.

On Wednesday, PA employees in the Gaza Strip found that the Ramallah government had decided to cut one third of their salaries.

Read: Protests against Palestinian Authority in Ramallah

On his Facebook page, Dahlan, who lives in exile, wrote: “Far from all ethical and moral bases, Abbas and his administration committed a big crime targeting the livelihoods of our people in the [Gaza] Strip as he cut 30 per cent of the salaries of the PA employees.”

According to Al-Resalah, Dahlan wrote that the salary cut, which was based on “baseless and weak justifications”, was illegal.

He added:

This crime will not go ahead. We will fight it, using all legal, political and popular means in order to oblige this corrupt oppressor [Abbas] to retreat. We have to prepare ourselves for a continuous and a wide-scale movement, not only in the Gaza Strip, but everywhere and also in diaspora.

Dahlan said that he calls for protests not only due to the economic consequences of the salary cuts, but “because this decision deepens the internal divisions…between the two sides of the country.”

The PA said the decision to cut salaries was taken due to a financial crisis, but the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights stressed that the PA’s explanation was an “unacceptable pretext” because it “contradicts” financial reports that show the PA’s income had recently improved.