Halt to aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government

In April this year the European Commission halted aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Now the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, has appealed for a concerted regional effort to ensure that funds get through to the Palestinian people and EU foreign ministers said a plan was urgently needed to allow humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinians without going through the Hamas-led government.

“In your opinion, is it justified to punish the Palestinians for having brought Hamas into government through democratic elections? Do you believe these sanctions will address some of the issues at hand, such as demanding the recognition of the state of Israel by Hamas or do you see it more as an antagonistic move by the European Union?'

'The Palestinian public was tired of long lasting wars...'

Usually the votes of radical parties increase when all other parties are not satisfactory enough to meet public demands. When all other hopes seem to be dead, everybody decides to try the untested as the last chance. In my opinion, it is the same in the case of Israel-Palestine. Palestinian public was tired of long lasting war and problems with Israel and despite many efforts to establish peace there is nothing changing. I accept this election result as the scream of losing hope. Only people who have nothing to loose can take very radical decisions. According to me, the European Union should really have an urgent plan for humanitarian aid because leaving those people to their own destiny of poverty means pushing them more to the side of radical thoughts and keeping them away from the Western world. This would also give Hamas reason for propaganda.

On the other hand, the behaviour of a political party may change when they become government because it is easier to talk without taking the responsibility. For Hamas it could be easier to act in a more radical way, but now they are also obliged to act depending on world politics and that may be a kind of limit for their activities. There is a possibility that Hamas may become more peaceful. For this reason, before behaving based on the prejudices of the past it is better to wait and observe for a while. Selen, Turkey

'We can't spoil money by giving it to extremists...'

I think that this issue is very problematic. Punishing the people through cutting down on help to the country is unfair; moreover these aids are all they have. However the Hamas is an extremist party, and we cannot know whether they'll 'soften' with power or not. They have already created a militia, parallel to the army, that's supposed to control people's behaviour and morality. This militia is state-funded, and we cannot allow aids meant for schools or medicine to be spent on building an Islamic regime. I suppose a stricter control of where the aid is going is necessary, but we can't stop the aid all together: we need a new way to make this money go through directly to the people. The EU gives support to poor countries in order for them to become or remain democratic, but we can't spoil money by giving it to extremists... Araceli, France

'Democracy is accepting the people's decision.'

I don't think these sanctions are at all justified. The occidental diplomacy is deceiving more and more people worldwide playing a highly hypocritical role. This is democracy: the people had their say, and it shall be accepted. The European countries can't, for the sake of consistency, predicate about democracy around the world and then, as soon as it is not convenient for their interests, forget about the democratic principles. For me, it is hypocritical, very clumsy for stabilising the Middle-East and hardly acceptable. Whatever party the Europe and countries take, they should be consistent. If we bet for democracy, let's not blame/sanction a perfectly valid democratic decision. It is very basic common sense!!!' Andres, Spain