Fatah power struggle leads to missing paychecks in Gaza
A series of internal conflicts in Fatah has been deepened by a decision to withhold the salaries of Gaza-based security officers said to be supporters of Mohammed Dahlan, President Mahmoud Abbas' chief rival.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was haunted last week by the Arabic saying “cutting livelihood is worse than cutting necks.” Abbas had stopped payment on the salaries of more than 200 security officers suspected of being loyal to renegade Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan.
When the Palestinian government transferred 60% of December salaries on Jan. 20, 220 Gaza-based security officers discovered that their names were not among those submitted to the consortium of six banks responsible for distributing payrolls. The punishment for the alleged Dahlan loyalists by way of denials of payment did not go over well, leading to protests, petitions and calls for a reversal of the decision. Episodes of violence and unrest were recorded against a number of pro-Abbas officials and institutions.
The officers received a short-term payout from a financial security net fund established by pro-Dahlan supporters to offset the “no-salaries decision," according to Samir Mashrawi, a staunch Dahlan confidant. The denial of salaries to people who are essentially civil servants was harshly rebuked by many in Gaza and the West Bank, including by some of the most senior officials in Abbas’s own Fatah movement.
Tawfiq Tirawi, a senior Fatah Central Committee member and former head of intelligence, described the decision as a “mistake” and called for its reversal. Tirawi echoed many others when he told the Gaza-based Donia al-Watan website that members of Palestinian security have their “loyalty to the nation and legitimacy and not to any individual.” A petition signed by Fatah members of the elected Palestinian Legislative Council called for a reversal of the decision and for holding those responsible for it accountable.
