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.