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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082100944.html
Gaza's Public Workers Paid to Stay Home
[AP/Washington Post] Steven Gutkin - Gaza's public employees are getting paid on one condition: Stay home - now that Hamas militants are firmly in charge. A rival pro-Western government in the West Bank is delivering salaries to most of Gaza's civil servants as long as they don't work. Mahmoud Abbas doesn't want its money propping up Hamas, but neither does it want to punish Gaza's mostly pro-Fatah 90,000 civil servants whose salaries form the backbone of the economy. The result is a lot of inactivity. And many fearful for their safety in a Hamas-dominated land. In practice, few public employees outside the health sector are working. Gaza's schools have been on vacation since the Hamas takeover, and it's not clear if teachers will return to work when school resumes in September.