Popular Front calls for PA to stop ‘racist’ policies towards Gaza

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) yesterday called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop its “racist” policies against the Gaza Strip, Safa news agency reported.

In a statement, the PFLP said that the current PA government is following the footsteps of the previous government regarding the differences between Gaza and the West Bank.

The PFLP stated that the Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege and the PA sanctions that have made the lives of its residents “unbearable”.

Meanwhile, it noted that the current government, led by the new Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, “did not learn the lessons from the bitter experience of the previous government.”

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It stressed that “this government is even more racist than the previous one, especially regarding the salary payments.”

The statement said that PA government did not adopt any plan to deal with the starving and poor people in Gaza at a time when it is raising the salaries of its ministers despite the claims that is adopting austerity measures to face the PA budget deficit.

Raising the salaries of the current and former ministers during a financial crisis is a form of “financial corruption”, it said, adding that investigations should be held in to the decision and officials should be held accountability.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas approved a 67 per cent pay rise for Palestinian Authority (PA) officials – as well as other financial benefits amounting to tens of thousands of dollars – while the West Bank’s economy struggled and swathes of public sector employees spent months with reduced pay.