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Text of article by Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad entitled "The prisoners dossier and the Ministry of Finance: A just word between you and us", published by Palestinian newspaper Al- Ayyam on 14 July
The Ministry of Finance, and I personally, have recently been the target of an unjust, devious and pervasive campaign against the backdrop of a claim by some who sought to exploit the prisoners dossier in all its painful and tragic aspects, saying that the ministry had neglected the dossier and had marginalized and forgotten our brothers who are lingering in the prisons of the Israeli occupiers. Indeed, what is worse than that is that this group has attributed such alleged negligence to the finance minister's failure to understand the struggle aspect of that dossier and to a deliberate intention to neglect it.
As I have said, it is an unjust, devious and pervasive campaign. It is unjust because its substance - as shown below in figures - is completely untrue, for the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] has always treated the prisoners' financial needs as a top priority. It is devious because it has ignored the fact that our noble Palestinian people are fully capable of distinguishing between the struggle and what it represents in the way of honour, morals and nobility, and between those who make false claims in order to impose custodianship on virtue and monopolize the issuing of good-conduct medals.
Before I begin my explanation - backed by figures - of what I am saying, I believe it may be appropriate to pause and make a passing clarification and apology in advance. The clarification is related to the gist of the complaint that formed the basis of the campaign directed at the Finance Ministry. I would like to stress here that the alleged negligence attributed to the ministry is not at all connected to the funds allocated to the prisoners and their families (for those allocations have been paid in full), but are connected to the monthly stipends paid to the Palestinian Prisoner Club for operational budgets and legal fees.
The advance apology is in two parts: The first is connected to my being compelled to focus on the time period in which I took office as finance...