Hamas minister reduced to smuggling aid

Palestinian supporters came out on the streets when Zahar visited Indonesia on his fundraising tour. Picture / Reuters.

GAZA - The World Bank has said it wants to help deliver aid to Palestinians a day after it was revealed a Hamas minister evaded an international boycott - by bringing up to $33 million of donations in suitcases through the Egyptian border.

The money, brought through the UN-monitored Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip by Foreign Minister Dr Mahmoud Zahar, was handed over to security officials answerable to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas confirmed the money would be turned over in full to the Hamas-controlled Finance Ministry.

Zahar, who has been on an international fundraising tour, told the security staff that he was carrying a large sum of money through the crossing operated by presidential forces.

Julio de la Guardia, a spokesman for the EU monitors at the border, said that while Zahar's bags were X-rayed at the border as part of the normal security screening process, they were not opened because as a minister, Zahar has a "VIP 1" status, the highest classification for dignitaries passing through the international border.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said his organisation was preparing to extend the Emergency Services Support Programme, which for the past five years has provided support to Palestinian ministries on essential services, education, health and social affairs.

The bank manages a fund which pays for Palestinian bureaucracy, which has remained frozen by donors since Hamas came to power.

"The World Bank would like to facilitate the delivery of assistance that a number of donors are eager to provide so that the Palestinian people do not suffer from a lack of social services, particularly health and education," Wolfowitz said. "We are in active discussion to find immediate and longer-term solutions."

De La Guardia said he could not say exactly how much money was brought by into Gaza by Zahar, though he said that the monitoring mission had been expecting him to be carrying cash after a tour which has taken him to Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Zahar has also recently visited China, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.

Walid Awad, of Abbas's office, said that the move by Zahar had put Abbas in a "dilemma". On the one hand he was unhappy at the move, which he saw as an "amateurish" way of increasing revenue.

On the other he could not be seen as objecting to the import of cash to alleviate the increasing poverty of Palestinians as a result of the boycott.

Abbas believed the solution was political and that Hamas should sign up to his presidential programme of seeking a two-state solution.

On Wednesday in Ramallah there were angry scenes when about 1000 Government workers protested at the Parliament building at the non-payment of their wages.

Hamas' inability to pay salaries since taking control of the Palestinian Authority in March, and tensions with Abbas over control of the security forces, has sparked internal violence and increased fears of civil war.

Fears of a humanitarian crisis prompted the "Quartet", comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, to agree last month to find ways to channel money to Palestinians that will bypass Hamas.

Under a proposed EU plan, aid from the Quartet countries would provide up to US$30 million ($49 million) a month in cash "allowances" directly to government employees who provide essential services, particularly health care.

- INDEPENDENT / REUTERS