Jerusalem - European humanitarian aid Commissioner Louis
Michel blamed Israel Friday for the 'grave' fiscal crisis in the
Palestinian Authority, and called on it to unfreeze some 600 million
US dollars it owes the PA in custom duties collected on its behalf.
'Contrary to what is sometimes said, the cause of this crisis is
not the suspension of direct international budgetary aid,' to the
current and previous Hamas-led Palestinian government, Michel told a
conference in Jerusalem on humanitarian aspects of the Middle East
conflict.
'The principle reason is the suspension of transfers to the
Palestinian Authority of tax revenues and custom duties pursued by
Israel on behalf of the Authority and which represents a very large
part of the latter's budget,' he said.
Michel, who was wrapping up a three-day visit to Israel and the
Palestinian areas, said the EU had called on Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert to use the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) set up by
the bloc as a means of transferring funds directly to health workers
and Palestinian civil servants to meet their basic needs.
'We hope, we expect the Israeli government to cease this
possibility,' he said.
Israel transferred 100 million dollars directly to Mahmoud Abbas'
office in December, as part of a goodwill measures promised by Olmert
to the Palestinian president two months earlier. This, however, was
'not enough,' Michel said.
The Belgian EU official said human rights in the region were
threatened most by attacks on civilians, condemning both the near-
daily rocket attacks by Palestinian militants from Gaza on Israeli
civilian towns, and Israeli military actions targeting Palestinian
population centres.
But he also stated that Israeli restrictions on movement
'annihilated any chance for economic development in the Palestinian
territories,' pointing out that nearly 60 per cent of Palestinians
lived under the poverty line of 2 euros a day.
Israel says it has imposed the restrictions to prevent suicide
bombers from reaching Israeli cities from the West Bank, and says
they have helped to greatly reduce such attacks.
It also says it froze the transfer of taxes collected on goods
that pass through its ports and airport on their way to the PA to
prevent the money from reaching Hamas militants.
Michel was due to continue his Middle East tour in Jordan and
Syria, where he was to visit humanitarian projects funded by the EU.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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