European Union refuses to finance fuel supplies to Gaza power station

European Union refuses to finance fuel supplies to Gaza power station

A spokesperson for the European Commission warned yesterday that the EU will not resume financing the fuel supplies to Gaza Strip if Hamas imposes tax on the electricity bills.
The spokesperson said: Our information indicate that Hamas intends to impose tax on the electricity bills in Gaza Strip and this will prevent us from resuming the financing of the fuel supplies to generate electricity.

The European Commission issued the following press release:
A press release from the European Commission

Following security concerns in North Gaza last week, the European Commission decided to interrupt the support for the delivery of fuel to the Gaza Power Plant between Thursday and Sunday.

In the meantime, the European Commission received information indicating that steps were being taken by Hamas to divert part of the revenues deriving from the production of electricity in Gaza. We are extremely concerned about this and are carefully verifying the situation.

We are ready to resume our support to the Gaza Power Plan within hours once we receive the appropriate assurances that all the funds will be exclusively used for the benefit of the Gaza population.

EU external aid, in Palestine as well as all over the world, is directed at relieving suffering of populations in need. In Gaza, part of our current support focuses on allowing the population to benefit from essential public services, including electricity.

The EU financial support to the Gaza Power Plant continued without interruption under the most adverse circumstances, such as the recent violent events in Gaza. Even when the power plant was not operational, following its bombing in June 2006, the European Commission implemented an emergency distribution programme to ensure provision of electricity to key essential facilities in the Strip.

We will continue to do our utmost to ensure the provision of emergency assistance to the population of Gaza, whom we will not abandon. But the Commission needs to be reassured that this will reach the real target: the Palestinians in need.

So far in 2007, the European Commission has provided over 400 million euros in support to the Palestinians (almost 2.5 billion NIS).

In the meantime, an official spokesperson for the Presidency said President Abbas held in the past two days several Arab and international contacts to brief the officials on the dangerous conditions of the people in Gaza Strip. President Abbas affirmed in his contacts on the need to return electricity to Gaza Strip because cutting off electricity will cause major damage and harm to the lives and interests of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and that the people have nothing to do with the acts of piracy executed by Hamas leadership and its militias.

A senior source: officials in the presidency appeal to the EU not to pump fuel to Gaza

In the meantime, the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Hanieh accused officials in the government of Fayyad of involvement in the conspiracy to suspend the provision of fuel to Gaza Strip, explaining that there are no security or political justifications to suspend the fuel supplies. The government expressed regret for the involvement of Sa'di al-Krunz and Riyad al-Malki in promoting lies and fabricated stories that come as part of the political extortion attempts. The caretaker government headed by Hanieh held its weekly meeting yesterday and discussed several important political issues and the attacks of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian citizens and condemned the assassination operation executed by the occupation troops yesterday afternoon. The government called in a statement on the EU to form an investigation committee to verify the false claims that demanded the halt of fuel supplies. The government announced the start of judicial measures pertaining to the corruption file of the electricity company and those detained in relation to this file. The government stressed on the legal and investigation measures in the complaints filed by members of the Executive Force against the Palestinian Islamic Bank which froze their bank accounts in an illegal manner.

In the meantime, senior sources close to the EU said the European Union affirmed that it will resume pumping fuel to Gaza Strip, especially after they found out the false claims of those in the Presidency and the government of Fayyad who incite against Gaza Strip. the source which preferred to remain anonymous said the EU knows very well that what is pumped into Gaza Strip goes to Gaza power station and not as claimed by officials in the Presidency and the government of Fayyad. Other sources in the Muqata revealed that the person in charge of procuring fuel to Gaza Strip and in charge of contacts with the EU (Kh. Z.) requested officially from the EU not to pump fuel to Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, Deputy Head of the Palestinian Energy Authority Engineer Kan'an Obeid said on Monday that the revenues of the electricity company have not been touched by Hamas or any other faction on the Palestinian arena, demanding from the EU to stop the suffering of more than 1.5 million citizens in Gaza Strip. During a press conference in Gaza, Obeid called on President Abbas to hold accountable the official in charge of the European grant in the Finance Ministry Mazen Jadallah because of the financial corruption and the misappropriation of the European fund offered to the electricity sector. He called on the EU to form a fact finding commission to look into all operations and acts of the electricity company in Gaza districts.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper and PalTimes on August 21, 2007