Haaretz
Adar 23, 5766
The Bush
administration has decided to halt funding for an infrastructure
development project in the Palestinian Authority, and will provide the
Palestinians with humanitarian aid only, American officials told security
officials and the Foreign Ministry.
The new policy was implemented
to make sure U.S. foreign aid money does not reach a Hamas-led government,
and to prevent administration officials from having to make contact with
representatives of a terror organization.
Incoming Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniyeh said yesterday that he was calling a special session of
parliament next week to vote on the new Hamas cabinet. See story, Page 2.
A government source in Jerusalem said the United States rejected
Israeli requests that it continue funding a few projects in the
territories, such as the new sewage system in Hebron, saying that all
contact with the Hamas government was prohibited. The United States will,
however, continue funding a project to install new X-ray machines at
checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.
James
Kunder, the assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East at the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Israel yesterday
to discuss the formation of the Hamas government. Kunder met with
representatives of Palestinian organizations that receive American aid,
and is set to meet today with Israeli security officials and visit the
Karni crossing near Gaza.
The United States has been pressuring
Israel over the last few days to reopen the crossing, despite warnings
that Palestinians are planning to carry out a terror attack there. The
U.S. ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, and the U.S. security
coordinator, Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, told Israeli officials that
it's important to open the Karni crossing before the Hamas cabinet takes
power.
Jones and Dayton said that if the crossing remains closed,
Israel will be held responsible for a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza
Strip, and said it was important to make sure the crossing was operating
while there was still someone to talk to on the Palestinian side. They
said the U.S. administration will cut off all contact with the Palestinian
government after Hamas takes power.
Crisis
looming
Meanwhile, the head of the UN relief agency in the
Palestinian Authority warned yesterday of the risk of a humanitarian and
security crisis, and urged EU countries to give a chance to a new
Hamas-led government.
Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the
UN Relief and Works Agency, said she hoped the situation "will be
corrected after the Israeli elections."