RAMALLAH, May 10, 2011 (WAFA) – The government failure to pay April salaries to more than 140,000 public employees because of Israel’s decision not to transfer the monthly revenues to the Palestinian Authority was the focus of Tuesday’s three Palestinian dailies.

Al-Ayyam, Al-Quds and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida featured this issue on their front pages. The headlines focused on Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s statements on this matter.

Al-Quds’ top front page story had the headline “Fayyad: No salaries if Israel continues to withhold our money.” It addressed the implications of the situation on public employees. It quoted Fayyad’s rejection of allegations of exploiting the crisis for his political agenda and clarified the fiscal deficit in the Palestinian Authority’s budget.

Fayyad made these statements after the singing of a 10 million euros French grant to the PA.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, as well as the rest of the papers, reported on the meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah and Abbas’ comments about the reconciliation agreement and plan to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state if negotiations fail.

The papers’ front pages also covered latest events in Syria and the European sanctions against it.

Al-Quds editorial focused on the salaries’ issue saying that while people were jubilant with the announcement of reconciliation, they nevertheless are facing difficult conditions since the government has not been able yet to pay salaries.

The newspaper has an op-ed piece by Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef, who talks about the mood in the Palestinian street after the signing of the reconciliation agreement.

The opinion pieces in Al-Ayyam focused mainly on the reconciliation and its aftermath.

R.Q./M.A.