PA can't pay salaries because donor countries have failed to provide promised funds, says Abbas

Amid further protests against Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that government employees in Ramallah would not receive full salaries this month because donor countries have not delivered promised aid.

The US and Arab countries have failed to come through this year with the aid money they have pledged, he said, leaving the PA that governs much of the West Bank in a budgetary shortfall that has contributed to rising prices and delays in the payment of government salaries.

Abbas told the Arab League that his government has tried to lower taxes in order to ease the financial burden on the Palestinian people, but that this would affect salaries, which have not been paid for the month of August.

The economic conditions have helped spark small but growing protests in the West Bank, which Abbas on Wednesday tried to embrace by describing as the beginning of the ‘Palestinian Spring’. Last week demonstrators halted traffic in key Palestinian cities.

On Thursday, demonstrations against mounting commodity prices were held across the West Bank under the banner “Leave already, Salam Fayyad!” The Palestinian Authority prime minister denied reports on Thursday that he had tendered his resignation to the president, but was said to be willing to step down.