Nader Khatib works as an accountant for the Hamas-led Palestinian government in the morning and moonlights as a plumber in the afternoon, fixing taps and pipes to make ends meet.Although he has not been paid since March and has little to do there, he still shows up at the Ministry of Public Works for a few hours. A government union says 60 per cent of civil servants no longer turn up for work.
The wheels of the Palestinian Authority''s infrastructure are grinding to a halt since Israel and the West cut assistance and tax transfers to the aid-dependant government over militant Islamist group Hamas'' refusal to recognise the Jewish state.
Ministries are providing fewer services. Those that do offer services have no money for basic items, like stationery. Doctors at government-run hospitals have cancelled routine operations.
''''I have to work after hours just to survive,'''' said Khatib.
Raed Hammad, another government accountant, said he struggled to find the 2 dollars needed to travel from his village to his job in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. He works in a restaurant at night.
''''The Palestinian Authority is collapsing. Even if we show up at work, there''s nothing for us to do. I will soon stop coming to the office,'''' he told Reuters.
Since it was set up under the 1993 Oslo peace accords, the Authority has needed foreign help to stay afloat.
It employs 165,000 people, whose salaries support a quarter of the Palestinian population of 3.8 million dollars people in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a thin poor coastal territory from which Israel withdrew troops last year.
Hamas took over the Authority in March after beating the long-dominant Fatah movement of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in January elections. Despite the embargo, it has refused to soften its stance toward Israel, which it seeks to destroy.
Abbas this week set the stage for a showdown with Hamas by moving closer to a referendum, expected in July, on a proposal for statehood that implicitly recognises Israel. Hamas has rejected the document.
IDLE AND FRUSTRATED As the political stalemate drags on, the machinery of government is slowly creaking to a halt.
Officials say ministries have put on hold any projects that require funds from the Finance Ministry. Others said property deals were not being registered.
Palestinian government workers who do show up in the morning said they sit at their desks, read newspapers, chat with colleagues and then leave around noon, bored and frustrated.
Computers are turned off, fax machines and copiers have no ink or paper.Some workers who have stopped showing up have locked their offices. Desks are piled with unfinished paperwork.
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