Government of Canada PA Funding
So much for the legitimacy of world opinion with respect to Fatah-led Palestinian Authority representing a 'moderate' voice of reason in the ongoing, flagging and deliberately impossible-to-negotiate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Janus-faced Mahmoud Abbas' support of terror against Israel, as a 'legitimate' form of 'protest' against their Israeli 'occupiers' is well enough known to those who care to know, and flippantly ignored by those who should care to know.Here was PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again speaking directly to his own, emphasizing that, in fact, there is no ideological difference between his Fatah party and Hamas; the sole distinguishing feature being that "The Palestinian Authority is the legitimate authority and that is the difference", spoken at a Fatah conference. Assuring those at the conference that he personally has no intention of re-starting peace talks unless his very particular conditions are fully met.
Where he also spoke of the official celebration of Dalal Mugrahbi birth anniversary, a woman who orchestrated the 1978 Coastal Road attack which killed 37 Israelis, including ten children. This Palestinian terrorist was fondly honoured with the naming of a Ramallah town square in her memory. A martyr to the cause. Which cause would that conceivably be? Certainly not the solution to the historical, current and ongoing impasse, certainly not the cause of peace, but that of terror.
In Ramallah Canada's President of the Treasury Board met with the PA Minister of Planning and Administrative Development, along with the PA Justice Minister and the PA Attorney General. Mr. Toews' message to the three PA ministers, as described later to reporters, was to advise them officially that Canada had carefully considered its funding options and had come to the conclusion that Canadian tax dollars would be best spent bestowed directly toward a nascent Palestinian state's justice system.
Hitherto, Canada's endowments to the PA have gone into its general administrative fund. Where there was no accountability with respect to where and how that funding was spent. Those who know quite specific details also are informed that some of that Canadian funding goes directly to Hamas, an non-governmental entity which Canada has placed on a terrorist listing and which Canada has no intention of supporting.
Mr. Toews explained that the Government of Canada had refused to have that funding continue to be deposited directly to the PA Treasury. "Canada has made a $300-million commitment over five years to the Palestinian Authority, but we want to put that money only into programs that are consistent with Canadian values. We are going to focus directing our funds on institution-building in the PA, such as building a proper functioning justice system... I told him (the PA minister of Planning and Administration Development) that Canada's paramount concern is the security of Israel."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) long known to employ Hamas members in various capacities, is expressing high dudgeon over Canada's move to cut funding to the agency's programs in the PA in favour of directing funding to the PA justice system. Under UNRWA, which operates food distribution and other support programs, along with a number of schools throughout Gaza and the West Bank, school curricula has been rife with slanderous inventive against Jews and Israel.
UNRWA is displeased that 11% of its budget, to a total of $10 million on an annual basis, is being re-directed. Canadian officials have responded tactfully that under the current system it has no idea how the funding is being used. This is a conclusion and a an alteration of traditional funding transfers most satisfactory to the Canadians whose taxes are used for these initiatives.
And those same Canadians clearly have good reason to applaud their government's sensitivity to the issues at hand.
Labels: Government of Canada, Israel, Middle East
posted by Pieface @ Monday, January 18, 2010
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