RAMALLAH, January 9, 2018 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government warned on Tuesday that not allowing Gaza’s public employees to resume work will impair and disrupt reconciliation efforts.

The cabinet discussed in its weekly meeting reports by various ministers who said that Gaza’s Hamas-backed employees has prevented the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) public servants from returning to the posts they held before the division or have kicked out those who did return to work, according to a cabinet statement.

“The cabinet calls for facilitating the return of the former civil servants in the Gaza Strip to their workplaces in accordance with the cabinet‘s decision on this, and warns against the irresponsible actions of the so-called Employees Union in the Gaza Strip to prevent public employees from entering to their ministries and workplaces,” said the statement.

“The ministers and heads of government departments are authorized by the government to gradually reinstate the former employees for the interest of work in preparation for the return of all employees to their work.”

PA public employees were ordered not to cooperate with the Hamas authority following its takeover of power in Gaza in June 2007. The employees, who number around 20,000, were told to stay home and to continue receiving their salary.

Hamas hired new employees to replace the striking ones and is currently demanding the 40,000 new employees be included on the official PA personnel register and payroll, a process the PA says first requires full cooperation from Hamas in ending the division on the ground and not only on paper and consolidating the reconciliation agreement signed between them in October before it can be done.

The cabinet mentioned employees of the ministries of agriculture and culture in specific and others as well who were not allowed to enter their workplaces or kicked out after showing up to work.

This act, said the cabinet, “impairs reconciliation in general and the essence of the government’s work, as well as creates another obstacle to be added to other obstacles that prevent the government from extending its legal mandate and exercising its duties in the southern governorates (Gaza Strip),” said the statement.

“Empowerment cannot be done except in full and after meeting all its conditions,” it said.

M.K.