West's boycott pushes Hamas close to Iran-UK report (Reuters)

[Eugene]

West's boycott pushes Hamas close to Iran-UK report
31 Jan 2007 00:01:07 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Sophie Walker

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The West's isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian
government has served only to push it closer to Iran, a British parliamentary
committee said on Wednesday.

Hamas trounced the more moderate Fatah in an election last year. Its refusal
to negotiate peace with Israel triggered a Western aid embargo which the
International Development committee noted had forced it to look elsewhere
for financial support amid a rising crisis of poverty and hardship.

"Hamas now has closer links to governments like that of Iran than it had two
years ago. We doubt whether this is a development that the international
community would have intended," the committee concluded in a report on
development assistance and the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the committee, said the international community
had created a dangerous situation where Islamist Hamas has no accountability
either to the people or to the Palestinian Authority.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30206742.htm


(The Guardian)

MPs attack UK-backed financial boycott of Palestinian Authority

Ian Black, Middle East editor
Wednesday January 31, 2007
The Guardian

Rapidly deteriorating conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip risk blocking
the creation of a viable Palestinian state, MPs warn today in a thinly veiled
attack on British policy in the Middle East.

The report by the all-party International Development committee criticises the
UK-backed financial boycott of the Palestinian Authority and says that this is
drawing Palestinians closer to Iran. "The committee doubts whether this is a
development the international community would have intended," it adds.

Britain and its EU partners followed the US in withdrawing support for the PA
after the Islamist movement Hamas won last year's Palestinian elections. Israel
stopped paying tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA - a total withholding
of 75% of its entire budget. The result is that 66% of all Palestinian families
are living below the poverty line.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2002316,00.html