No delay in paying Palestinian employees' wages

Palestinian employees will get their salaries on time, despite the United States threatened to freeze 200 million U.S. dollars in aid for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), an official said Tuesday. The PNA will cash the salaries of September to the employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip later on Tuesday, Bassam Zakarna, the chief of the PNA Employees Union said in a press release emailed to reporters. The Palestinian authority has been passing through a crucial financial crisis due to shortage in budget and paid only half salaries to its civil and security servants on July and August "We greet the Arab countries and the European donors for their immediate support sent to fulfill the shortage of the Palestinian budget after the United States threats to freeze aids to the PNA," Zakarna said. Earlier this week, the U.S. Congress decided to freeze 200 million dollars in Palestinian aid in response to the Palestinian determination to request a recognition of full membership of an independent statehood in the United Nations. On Sept. 23, PNA President Mahmoud Abbas submitted the Palestinian request to the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon for a statehood membership in the world body. The United States and Israel had strongly opposed the bid whiled Washington threatened to veto the Palestinian request if it was submitted to the UN Security Council. "The American threats are evidence of the unfair U.S. trends towards the rights of the Palestinian people," said Zakarna, warning "not to use the salaries of the poor employees as a sword on their necks." It is the first time the PNA pays salaries to its employees after submitting the statehood request to the UN and after the U.S. and Israeli threats of economical and financial sanctions against the PNA. However, Ali Jerbawi, minister of planning and administrative development in the caretaking government in the West Bank said the PNA still suffers from a severe financial crisis, but it managed to overcome parts of it after receiving Arab and European donations. "The world mustn't leave us alone to suffer politically and financially," al-Jirbawi told the Palestinian radio "Voice of Palestine."