Will end of land-for-pay program kill Palestinian reconciliation?
The announced suspension of the distribution of government-owned land in lieu of government salaries in Gaza is raising questions about the decision's impact on the reconciliation.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Nov. 7, Minister of Local Governance Hussein al-Araj announced that all government land allocated after Oct. 2, 2017, in the Gaza Strip was done illegally. New allocations of land are postponed until further notice.
The land allocation issue evolved from Hamas not being able to pay the salaries of government employees when it had full control of Gaza. Deputies for the Change and Reform Bloc, representing Hamas in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), ratified a law on Nov. 25, 2015, giving government employees land in Gaza based on the amount of back salary owed to them.
By this mechanism, employees submitted a request to the Land Authority in Gaza to obtain a piece of land commensurate with their back wages. Alternatively, employees could apply for Housing Associations, in which a group of 20-40 employees were given 800-1,000 square meters (up to a quarter acre) of land for the construction of residential housing.
According to Khalil Hamada, a spokesman for the Workers Syndicate in Gaza, 18,000 employees benefitted from the land distribution. Under the scheme, those employees now have the right to sell their share of the land they received.
