The president of the World Bank and other international fiscal authorities are warning Israel in a strongly-worded letter not to withhold cash from Gaza.
According to the Associated Press news agency, they also advised Jerusalem not to allow Israeli banks to implement a decision to sever ties with their Palestinian Authority counterparts in the Hamas terrorist-run region.
The letter, dated December 12 and received Monday by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was signed by Robert B. Zoelick, Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair and International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Withholding cash and ending reciprocal relations between Israeli and Gaza-based PA banks might have a “considerable impact on the Palestinian economy and its institutions, and ultimately on Israel’s longer-term relationship with the Palestinians,” the letter warned. The international monetary officials expressed concern that limiting cash supplies to the terrorist-controlled region could strengthen the black market there and further weaken the already-faltering banking system, arguing that this would weaken PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas in the effort to weaken Hamas.
Israel classified Gaza as a hostile entity after the Hamas terrorist organization seized total control over the region in a militia war with the rival Fatah faction in June 2007. The Hamas charter expressly refuses to recognize the State of Israel and calls for its annihilation.
Although the Israeli government has stated its objective is to ultimately topple the terrorist regime, Defense Minister Ehud Barak nonetheless recently approved the transfer of millions of shekels in cash into the region to re-invigorate the Gaza economy.
Government sources explained the cash was needed to allow the Ramallah-based Fatah-led PA government to continue to pay Fatah loyalists who still live in the area.