You have MY word on it!RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The Palestinian Authority vowed that some of its increasingly disgruntled civil servants will start receiving back salaries early next week after four months of successive delays.
Yeah...ummmmmmmmmm...early next week! That's the ticket! My wife...Morgan Fairchild will be passing them out.
Saturday's pledge was the fourth time in a week that the Hamas-led government, grappling with a financial crisis after Western countries cut off direct aid, has said the government's 160,000 civil servants will be paid. "On Monday, those employees who make less than 1,500 shekels (330 dollars) a month can go to the banks and get their salaries," finance minister Omar Abdelrazeq told a press conference in Ramallah.
Monday's payment of one month's salaries for the lowest earning workers will cost 60 million shekels (13 million dollars), he said. Those earning more than 1,500 shekels will be paid in the next stage, Abdelrazeq said, without saying when.
The next stage. So hang in there. Remember, In Hamas we trust.
Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told AFP Saturday the repeated delays were because of procedural snags, such as a new payment system by personal check rather than direct deposit.
Yeah. Ummmmmmmm...my pen ran outta ink. So I couldn't sign them.
However, employees' patience appears to be growing thin.
...as are the employees.
Workers took to the streets in the northern West Bank town of Nablus and in Ramallah Saturday to demand wages which have not been paid since February. In Nablus, some 2,000 frustrated government workers, armed Palestinian police among them, chanted: "We want our wages, not promises."
...and we have lots of guns.
| Funny, they always have lots of guns. |
Well that should speed things up.
On Friday, Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said workers would start receiving their pay by Sunday at the latest. He made a similar promise last Tuesday, vowing that 40,000 employees would be paid in full in the coming days. On Wednesday, Abdelrazeq said civil servants would receive partial payment "in the next two days."
Look! Jooos!
Around one million Palestinians, or a quarter of those living in Gaza and the West Bank, depend on government salaries. They have not been paid since the European Union and United States suspended direct aid after Hamas took office in March, because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Don't we have enough of our own deadbeats without covering the rest of the world's?