The Hamas government's 2014 budget reflects a financial and political crisis

Omar Shaban Ismail

The Hamas government's 2014 budget reflects a financial and political crisis

The Hamas bloc's approval of the 2014 budget in the Legislative Council came in very harsh conditions: a sharp fall in taxes on goods from Egypt after the tunnels' closure, and the deep recession gripping Gaza's economy under a tightening blockade.

Author: Omar Shaban Ismail
Date: 2014-03-19

The ratification by the “Hamas movement” bloc in the Legislative Council of the budget project for the year 2014 at the end of last year came in circumstances the least that can be said of which is that they are “very harsh” — the most important of them the great decline in the value of the taxes collected from the goods coming from Egypt because of the latter's closing of the tunnels, and the severe recession from which the economy in Gaza suffers. This was accompanied by an Israeli tightening of the blockade shortly after the discovery of the “third eye” tunnel on the border with Israel last October, coinciding with the escalation of the financial crisis of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). It can be said that the “Hamas” government, its movement, and the Gaza Strip are living through difficult circumstances, which may be the worst in years.