MIDDLE EAST: Israel is prepared to release Palestinian tax revenues into a proposed international aid mechanism for the Palestinian health sector, a senior Israeli official said yesterday.
The official said any money transferred by Israel would be given directly to specific Palestinian hospitals and clinics and an independent auditor would ensure the money was not diverted to the Hamas-led government, the health ministry or Hamas officials.
"The auditor could use the funds to pay salaries to doctors or nurses," the senior Israeli official said. "We don't want Hamas appointees in the ministry of health getting salaries."
However, a spokesman for Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not pay salaries. "Israel does not agree to transfer the tax money to pay the salaries of doctors, nurses and other health workers," said spokesman David Baker.
Last week, foreign minister Tzipi Livni also said Israel would not use the money for salaries.
Israel has been under strong European pressure to release the tax revenues amid fears that the Palestinian health sector was on the verge of collapse.
Israel's closest ally, the United States, has objected to paying salaries. It remains unclear whether any of the other sectors of the Palestinian Authority, including teachers and security personnel, would be paid. The Palestinian Authority employs 165,000 people, of whom an estimated 11,000 work in the health sector.
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several donor nations, such as Israel, had raised objections to paying teachers' salaries since the curriculum in the schools is controlled by the Hamas-led education ministry.
International donors and financial institutions will meet in Brussels next week to try to flesh out the temporary mechanism which the EU is putting together on behalf of the quartet of Middle East mediators (the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations).
Since Hamas won elections and took control of the Palestinian Authority, Israel has been withholding $55 million (€43 million) a month in tax receipts it collects on the Palestinians' behalf.
The Palestinian Authority is $1.3 billion in debt and has no income to pay overdue salaries.