Bibi: Money to Hamas Keeps Palestinians Divided

The Fellowship | March 11, 2019

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-GAZA-CONFLICT-SALARIES — A Palestinian woman counts her money after receiving her salary in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip November 9, 2018. - Cash-strapped Hamas announced this week that civil servants would receive the majority of their salaries for the first time in months. The Palestinian Islamic group has controlled Gaza since ousting forces loyal to the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority in a near civil war in 2007. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

With funds flowing into Gaza for supposedly humanitarian purposes, much of the money is instead taken by Hamas to carry out terrorist activities. That is about to stop, says Israeli PM Netanyahu. The Jerusalem Post’s Lahav Harkov tells us that instead of the Palestinian Authority supervising the money, Israel will instead be the pipeline, and that “Now that we are supervising, we know it’s going to humanitarian causes”:

Netanyahu explained that, in the past, the Palestinian Authority transferred the millions of dollars were to Hamas in Gaza. He argued that it was better for Israel to serve as the pipeline to ensure the funds don’t go to terrorism.

“Now that we are supervising, we know it’s going to humanitarian causes,” the source said, paraphrasing Netanyahu.

Netanyahu also said “whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for” transferring the funds to Gaza, because maintaining a separation between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza helps prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state…