The Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday it is launching a worldwide donation campaign for a Hamas-led Palestinian government in the face of US efforts to stop the flow of money to the hard-line group.
The pledge by the Brotherhood, which has branches and affiliated groups in 86 countries, comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice started a Middle East shuttle yesterday to caution regional powers against giving money to a Hamas-led government. The US and Europe, the world's two largest donors to the Palestinians, said they will not provide funding directly to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas heads the government.
"This is injustice and an attempt to impose a blockade on the Palestinians," said the Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef.
"We will appeal to each and every Muslim to help the Palestinians in the face of this unjust and fierce campaign [against Hamas]," Akef told reporters.
Another Brotherhood leader said the group will ask its supporters to donate one quarter of their income to support Hamas.
"The Muslim Brotherhood [supporters] are ready to give a quarter of their income of more to support the Palestinian cause and back Hamas," Mohammed Hilal told the Cairo-based al-Masry al-Yawm newspaper.
Arab and Islamic governments are also trying to make up any shortfall in Palestinian finances caused by a cutoff in Western aid.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, plans to provide institutional and financial aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.
"We will [provide funding]. I have already spoken to some [OIC] leaders about it. We want to help, too," he told reporters.
Also yesterday, foreign ministers from several Arab countries were to meet in Algiers to examine a plan to send about US$50 million a month to the Palestinian Authority. A final decision is not expected until Arab leaders meet in a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Meanwhile, in fresh violence yesterday, Israeli troops carried out a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus and ambushed gunmen from Islamic Jihad, killing two, including the group's West Bank commander, Palestinian sources said. Four gunmen were wounded.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS