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Palestinian P.M. Promises Pay

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyya said on Tuesday that his government will begin paying "a full month’s wages to those earning up to 1,500 Israeli shekels (about $333). The number of those employees is 40,0000." Those earning more than that amount will begin receiving advances of 1,500 shekels. Haniyya has not revealed the source of the money that makes the payments possible. But employees of the P.A. have not received salaries since March. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas was visiting in Tunisia, where he told Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali  about his plans for a referendum on the issue of a plan authored by jailed Palestinian leaders that would offer a tacit recognition of Israel by the Hamas-led government and presumably restore the flow of international aid money to the P.A. While in Tunis, ‘Abbas will meet with Fatah leaders who remain in exile, including Farouk Qadoumi, who heads the Fatah central committee.