Europe says no Gaza reconstruction under Hamas

[oberliner]

A European official says she expects humanitarian aid will start flowing quickly to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

But she says buildings and infrastructure will not be rebuilt as long as the militant Hamas rules there.

The European Union classes Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuses to deal with it.

Israel waged a just-ended war against Hamas that destroyed vast swaths of Gaza.

The EU official, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, suggested on Monday that international help in rebuilding Gaza could come if the Fatah Party of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas returns to the territory.

http://www.aol.com.au/news/story/Europe-says-no-Gaza-reconstruction-under-Hamas/1565601/index.html

[virginia mountainman]

1. Yes, But..

Hamas is the elected government of the Gaza Strip.

They where selected by the Gazinians, to be their leaders...

[stray cat]

3. And other elected governments can decide who they give money to

Palestinians of course have the right to elect Hamas just like we elected Bush. Other countries have the right to turn their back on helping the elected government just like they lost any respect for Bush.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Ah...no Hamas is not the elected governmnet in Gaza

[azurnoir]

20. It is like this

in 2006 Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority or as it is also known Palestinian National Authority parliamentary elections this made Haniyeh Hamas the Prime Minister and Abbas Fatah was elected President of the PNA in 2005 and so it was a joint government not just of Gaza but of both Gaza and the West Bank. In 2007 there was a coup ostensibly by Hamas that over threw Fatah that would and Hamas took over Gaza however it should be noted that there is evidence that the US was arming Fatah to do the same to Hamas. What is never mentioned is that Fatah and Hamas are both parties that come under the umbrella of the PNA somehow that is always left out and the comment that no Hamas is the elected government in Gaza is answered with no they are not which is in it self not untrue but is designed to give a untrue impression

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA; Arabic: السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية‎ As-Sulṭa Al-Waṭaniyyah Al-Filasṭīniyyah) is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The following organizations, listed in alphabetic order, have taken part in recent elections inside the Palestinian National Authority:

* Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Al-Jabhah al-Dimuqratiyah Li-Tahrir Filastin)
* Fatah or Liberation Movement of Palestine (Harakat al-Tahrâr al-Filistini)
* Hamas or Islamic Resistance Movement (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyah)
* Palestine Democratic Union (al-Ittihad al-Dimuqrati al-Filastini, FiDA)
* Palestinian National Initiative (al-Mubadara al-Wataniya al-Filistiniyya)
* Palestinian People's Party (Hizb al-Sha'b al-Filastini)
* Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Al-Jabhah al-sha'abiyah Li-Tahrir Filastin)

October 2006 polls have shown that Fatah and Hamas have equal strength. <3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Authority

Gen. Dayton admits US is helping Fatah

As violence raged this week in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah, US officials stressed the importance of American efforts to bolster forces loyal to the latter and said further help was necessary.

Congress recently allowed $59 million to be used to further Dayton's efforts at training the presidential guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
The money, however, didn't go through the normal appropriation process, as the White House took previously approved funds and simply reallocated them.
Dayton pushed the case for further US assistance to the Palestinian guard, despite months of efforts on the ground that have seemed to have little effect against the well-disciplined and well-supplied Hamas.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/J...

He admits that the US was/is "helping" Fatah/PA to fight Hamas in Gaza note this article is fro May of 2007, at best both sides were planning this well in advance.

The June escalation was triggered by Hamas’s conviction that the PA’s Presidential Guard, which US Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Keith Dayton had helped build up to 3,500 men since August 2006, was being positioned to take control of Gaza. The timing was significant. Abbas, Haniyeh and Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Meshaal, normally based in Damascus, had signed a Saudi-brokered power-sharing deal on 9 February 2007, and formed a national unity government in mid-March. In response, the build-up of the Presidential Guard was accelerated. The US had arranged the transfer of 2,000 rifles and ammunition from Egypt in late December 2006, and in late April the Israeli government transferred another 375; the US committed $59 million for training and non-lethal equipment, and covertly persuaded Arab allies to fund the purchase of further weapons. Jordan and Egypt hosted at least two battalions for training, one of which was deployed into Gaza as clashes resumed in mid-May. With half its parliamentary bloc and its cabinet ministers in the West Bank in Israeli custody since the abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 28 June 2006, Hamas concluded that its remaining government base in Gaza was in danger and launched what in effect was a pre-emptive coup.

http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-comments/pas...

[Donnachaidh]

2. Israel still trying to control the message with propaganda

So when is the EU going to label Israel a terrorist state for practicing genocide?

[Vegasaurus]

4. There are countries that actually do practice genocide

look into it.

[cali]

5. This is an EU message, not an Israeli one

And though Israel may well have committed specific war crimes, it has not committed genocide. That's why not a single Human Rights organization or the U.N. has made that claim.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Israel is not a member of the EU, and is not involved in this decision.

And let's not cheapen the word 'genocide'. Israel practiced war, which is bad enough.

[madrchsod]

6. the saudi`s just pledged 1 billion

let`s see what the eu throws in the pot...

citizens of gaza forget about democracy if you want money from the western "democracies"

[Vegasaurus]

7. The Gazans have about the farthest thing from a democracy possible

[Tripmann]

9. The Gazans elected Hamas

via the most democratically sound election process ever held in an arab country. Unfortunately for the Gazans, they didn't elect who the west and Israel wanted them to elect.

A democratically elected government via a proper democratic process. Hardly the "farthest thing from democracy" possible, and more of a democracy than most western-friendly arab states.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

22. No they did not

Hamas won the most seats in the assembly of the PA. They took Gaza by force

[wellst0nev0ter]

26. LOOOL!

Read up about how the Bushies armed Fatah in order to take out Hamas and in turn started off the civil war in the first place.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

[Vegasaurus]

27. I love it!

The seminal article on the supposed non-coup---Vanity Fair!

No one can find another source, but this one!

That's hysterical!

[wellst0nev0ter]

30. It's Been Thoroughly Documented

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza_documents200804

So you can stop being an opportunistic apologist for the Bushies in order to serve your agenda.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. Not to Hamas, but to the PA

Saudi's have previously said that the Palestinians need to unite under the PA

[cboy4]

29. Wow, the cheap, sexist bastards are opening their wallets.

Greedy, despicable people those Saudis.

They're always a day late and a dollar short, so to speak. :puke:

[bemildred]

8. It sounds like this person is expressing her own views. nt

[ProgressiveMuslim]

10. Do you agree with that, Oberliner?

[oberliner]

11. The EU views Hamas as a terrorist organization

Unless and until they decide to change that designation, I don't think they can direct any funds to them based on their own organizational rules.

Here is what the EU said in 2003 after they put Hamas on the terrorist list:

"Hamas leaders know that if they reverse their position, renounce violence and enter the political process, they can come off the list."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3100518.stm

If Hamas were to renounce violence and commit itself to peaceful coexistence, I am confident that the EU would reconsider the way they viewed the group and adjust their position accordingly.

[LeftishBrit]

12. I think they have no choice under the EU rules; however I would prefer a different action

Not because I love Hamas, but because I think that it is unfair to ordinary Gazans to punish them in this way. Also, from a more pragmatic point of view, I think that the more Gaza is isolated from the rest of the world, especially the West, the more Hamas will be strengthened.

But since these are the rules, I hope that charitable organizations will step in to help.

I also hope that the government do allow all aid to go to the people who need it.

[azurnoir]

14. she "suggested" they would allow aid

so the Gazans may get a few sacks of flour I have not read whether or not Israel will allow it in though, but the sewage pools will be allowed to collapse.

[oberliner]

18. Be aware that this has nothing to do with humanitarian aid

Please note the distinction made between allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and paying for infrastructure reconstruction.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Good point..

but it could be hard to separate the two completely.

At any rate, this may soon become redundant, if the info posted in another thread is correct, that the EU might rescind economic sanctions if a unity government is formed.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

23. As the US should force Israel to renounce violence and accept the right of Palestinians to exist.

But you agree with that position of the EU. I should be surprised but I'm not. Just disappointed.

I guess the EU would be happy to Gazans will sit among the rubble with rotting corpses. That's what they get for voting wrong.

Israel really taught 'em a lesson! Whoo hoo!!

[oberliner]

25. The US ought to be engaged and help to bring about a two-state solution

I certainly hope that Obama can be a lot more involved than his predecessor was.

I neither expressed agreement nor disagreement with the EU's position - I just identified why it was internally consistent. Either they think Hamas is a terrorist organization or they don't.

Personally, I think everyone should help Gaza rebuild as much as possible and make sure that no money is redirected away from that effort and towards further militancy.

[virginia mountainman]

28. As the UN should force Hamas to renounce violence and accept the right of Israelis to exist.

[Douglas Carpenter]

16. how about the EU withholding any and all economic cooperation with any Israeli government

that supports illegally maintaining or illegally expanding any illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory or any Israeli government that includes political parties that supports illegally maintaining or illegally expanding any illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories? The definition of illegal settlements will be defined by the international law as defined by the World Court of Justice and United Nations Security Council resolutions.

If the premise is that Hamas is practicing terrorism as defined by international law and that their practice of terrorism as defined by international law is an impediment to peace, they have a valid point. But the maintenance and expansion of illegal settlements as defined by international law is in fact altering facts on the ground to such as extent that a plausible and viable peace is rapidly becoming implausible and nonviable and its real effects on the Palestinian people and economy most certainly does constitute an act of violence against the Palestinian people and economy.

I would simply hope the EU would simply hold a position of an honest intermediary with a balanced policy.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Too much trade and interdependence for that to happen

They all saw what happened to France.

There is also no practical reason to do so. There will be no real penalty for Israel over this. No European nation really cares about Gaza or the Middle East except for oil. Saudi is going to pair for the repairs (and instill Wahhabi Islam). There is no reason for political risk. A few speeches will be made like George Galloway's, but that is about it.

Not saying its right or wrong, but its the most likely course of action

[ProgressiveMuslim]

24. Saudis donate 1 billion for reconstruction.

(snip)

The Saudi monarch also announced the donation of one billion dollars for the reconstruction of Gaza, while Kuwait pledged an aid of 34 million dollars to cover urgent needs of the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinian refugees.

The summit is expected to approve a two-billion-dollar fund for the rebuilding of Gaza, which was devastated by the Israeli offensive. But Sheikh Sabah said the reconstruction should be led through an international effort.

The war ended on Sunday with unilateral ceasefire declarations by Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the impoverished coastal strip from which it expelled Abbas’s Fatah party in mid-2007.

Initially intended to focus solely on the regional economy and to be non-political, the gathering has been turned into a show of solidarity with the 1.5 million Palestinian residents of Gaza.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/January/middleeast_January390.xml§ion=middleeast&col=


I don't see anything about it being funneled through Abbas.

[shira]

32. the Saudis and other Arab countries have reneged on their pledges before

let's see if they follow through this time.

And let's not put it past Hamas to use money and resources to advance their military goals, rather than reconstruction. We'll see soon how less corrupt they are with money and resources than Fatah.

[EFerrari]

31. These people are unteachable.