PA punishes political opponents by suspending their salaries
The employees claim that the PA illegally suspended their salaries because of their political affiliations.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHUpdated: DECEMBER 22, 2020 17:13PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY public servants wait to receive their salaries via an ATM outside a bank, in Tubas, earlier this month.(photo credit: RANEEN SAWAFTA/ REUTERS)
In an unprecedented move, dozens of Palestinian Authority employees are threatening to call on the European Union and other international parties to halt financial aid to the PA government.The employees claim that the PA illegally suspended their salaries because of their political affiliations.Palestinian sources said that the decision to suspend the salaries of the employees was taken because of their affiliation with deposed Fatah operative Mohammed Dahlan, an archrival of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and other Palestinian opposition groups.Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, was expelled from the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction after a falling out with Abbas nearly 10 years ago. Since then, the PA has been launching a crackdown against Dahlan supporters in the West Bank on the pretext that they are working to undermine the PA leadership.Sevag Torossian, a Paris-based lawyer representing 165 civilian and security employees of the PA, said that the salaries of his clients have been illegally suspended by the PA finance minister.On Monday, Torossian sent a letter to Nataliya Apostolova, head of the European Union Police and Rule of Law Mission for the Palestinian Territory (EUPOL COPPS), informing her that he has been “mandated to refer and submit the issue of the employees to all European and international institutions empowered to stop the financial aid to the Palestinian authorities if the issue is not solved by the end of this year.”EUPOL COPPS has its headquarters in Ramallah and its objective is to assist the PA in building the institutions of a future Palestinian state in the areas of policing and criminal justice.Torossian pointed out that the Palestinian High Court of Justice stated in 17 different judgements issued from 2018 to 2020 that the salaries of employees and public service personnel could not be suspended by such illegal decisions.“The High Court concluded each time that the salaries were basic rights of the employees and that their suspension was in violation of the law,” the lawyer said. “However, the Palestinian authorities have never implemented those judicial decisions which they are obligated to.”In his letter, Torossian wrote that “it seems that the Palestinian Government has a cursory understanding of the Rule of Law and considers itself above such laws.” He added: “Palestinian judges fighting for justice have reason to feel abandoned while European institutions are credited for supporting the Palestinian justice-building process. Some decisions of the High Court also added that discrimination of Palestinians based on gender, color, race, political affiliation or disability is prohibited by Article 9 of the Basic Law, and that the decisions to suspend salaries were discriminatory against Palestinians who are employees of the [Palestinian] State.”
According to Torossian, both the suspension of salaries and the present inertia of the authorities constitute abuse of power. The European Union Police and Rule of Law mission was established in the Palestinian territories some 15 years ago to assist the PA “in building its institutions focused on security and justice sector reforms,” he noted.The present sensitive issue surrounding the suspension of salaries, the lawyer said, “could be interpreted as the failure of the European assistance process to Palestinian authorities, which show unreadiness to implement the Supreme Court’s decisions. “European financial aid to the Palestinian Authority to build a “State of Law” could be called into question,” Torossian said.Sufian Abu Zaida, a veteran Fatah official from the Gaza Strip who is closely associated with Dahlan, complained earlier this year that the PA Finance Ministry was refusing to implement a court order to rescind the suspension of his salary.Recently, Abu Zaida asked the PA prosecutor-general to issue an arrest warrant for the PA finance minister for contempt of the court. “It’s time to resume the struggle against the virus of corruption that is devouring the Palestinian body,” the Fatah official wrote. “In countries that respect themselves and their people and the law, the penalty for refraining from implementing judicial decisions is imprisonment.”
