Hamas members following Ramallah elections victory
Photo: AFP
Nabil Amro
Photo: Al-Jazeera
Hamas: U.S. intervening in PA elections
Group accuses Bush administration of financing election campaigns of Fatah candidates ahead of Palestinian Authority general elections: ‘This is further proof of American, western involvement in internal Palestinian affairs’
Hamas has accused the Bush administration of financing the election campaigns of Fatah candidates ahead of the Palestinian Authority general elections.
The organization published a document which it claims shows the head of the American USAID (US Agency for International Development) fund corresponding with Palestinian parliament member Nabil Amro, thanking him for putting his trust in the fund and adding that he “received his letter regarding the financing of Amro and his associates’ campaign.”
Gaining Strength
Ali Waked
Round of elections held in Palestinian Authority's big cities; Fatah defeated by Hamas in Jenin, Nablus, al-Bireh; representatives of Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine gain victory in Ramallah
USAID said the document was forged and that it does not finance political candidates or parties.
Amro also denied the existence of the document, saying the affair was part of a smear campaign launched against him by his political rivals.
“The document is a reflection on the moral deterioration of the political rivalry,” he said.
The document also stated that former Labor Chairman Amram Mitzna had approached USAID regarding the financing of former Bethlehem governor and senior Fatah member Zuheir Manasra’s campaign.
'We will do everything to help our peace-seeking friends'
Mitzna told Ynet he never turned to the organization with such a request.
In the document, USAID Chief Andrew Natsios allegedly informs Amro that the fund has decided to assist candidates who are obligated to work against Hamas.
“We understand that the Washington Institute for Middle Eastern Studies has already been funding you for the past two years, and we are willing to finance you as long as you maintain your position against Hamas,” Natsios was quoted as saying in the letter.
“We will do everything to help our peace-seeking friends win the lections.”
Natsios also allegedly asks that the numbers of 30 bank accounts be belonging to Fatah candidates running in both the internal Fatah and general elections.
Hamas demanded that the Palestinian Authority launch an investigation into the matter, saying, “This is further proof of American and western involvement in internal Palestinian affairs.”
The group warned that silence over the repeated attempts to intervene in Palestinian affairs via the financial-political connection, “opens the door for greater American intervention and the creation of a rift between the Palestinian nation and its fighting organizations."
