Quartet should end immoral Palestinian aid boycott: Hobbs
Pakistan Times Wire Service

LONDON: The European Union, United Nations, Russia and United States should end their immoral and counter-productive aid boycott of the Palestinian government, the international charity Oxfam said on Wednesday.

The comments come in the run-up to a meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top diplomats from the other three members of the so-called "Middle East Quartet" on Wednesday in Berlin.

"The Quartet needs to take off its blinkers and see the damage its policies are having on ordinary Palestinian families," Oxfam's international director Jeremy Hobbs said in a statement.

"Using international aid as a battering ram to force through political change is not only immoral but also counter-productive."

The Quartet imposed the boycott a year ago after Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Washington, won legislative elections that gave them control of the government and refused to meet the group's conditions for recognition -- renounce violence, recognise Israel and comply with past Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

Oxfam also called on Israel to release taxes it has withheld since Hamas was elected, with Hobbs saying: "While the Palestinian Authority is bled dry by Israel's seizure of tax revenue and the international aid boycott, peace will be a distant dream."

The Berlin meeting comes soon after a rare encounter between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in a bid to revive their moribund peace negotiations.●