Israel Matzav

Payment in cash only

It's payday in Hamastan. Forget direct deposit to your bank account. You don't even need to get a check cashed. You get paid in cold, hard cash. Out of a suitcase....

Islamist group Hamas paid thousands of Gaza security officials on Friday by dishing out cash from suitcases rather than using banks, as Israel tightened a financial clampdown on the Palestinian territory.

A senior official at Gaza's Hamas-run Finance Ministry told Reuters the group planned to circumvent banks—some of which have come under Israeli-led pressure to shun Hamas—by paying September salaries to some 20,000 security forces and civil servants in cash.

"We do not want to embarrass the banks and we do not want to allow the Americans and others to undermine these banks," the Hamas official said.

...

The Hamas official said the group was paying at least 10,000 Hamas security officials on Friday at police stations and security posts. The remaining 10,000 civil servants would be paid in cash on Sunday and Monday at the Post Office, which is part of the Hamas-run telecommunications ministry.

Get out the world's smallest violin.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:13 PM