Furious Palestinians turn against their own

Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the performance of the Palestinian Authority are also being targeted. While most demonstrations in recent weeks have been peaceful, on Saturday night one took on a more destructive tone.

At a major intersection in Ramallah, near Jerusalem, youths blocked roads with rocks and set fire to overturned garbage bins, mattresses and piles of wood. The demonstration was outside the al-Amari refugee camp. Protests were also held over the weekend in Hebron and Nablus.

The trigger for the demonstrations has been the inability of the PA to pay full salaries to its 150,000 employees this month.  A major target of the protests is PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is more popular among Western leaders than among many of his people. Mr Fayyad, a trusted point of contact for leaders such as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is blamed for cutbacks to entitlements and rising prices.

The former economist with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has overseen a crackdown on inefficiencies and corruption in the PA. He has been praised by the IMF for making changes to the Palestinian economy, just as criticism of him has grown among Palestinians.

Yesterday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas held a press conference to try to quell the growing unrest by blaming a range of other entities. He panned Israel for its occupation of the West Bank.

"Palestinians can't utilise 60 per cent of their lands because of the occupation's policies," he said, referring to Area C, the largest part of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.

He also blamed donors to the PA, particularly Arab countries, who had not delivered promised aid. And he hit out at Hamas, his rival Palestinian faction, which controls the Gaza Strip, saying it had failed to contribute taxes.

Relations between Hamas and Fatah, the faction which underpins the PA and Mr Abbas, are bad.

Despite a rocky relationship at times between Mr Abbas and Mr Fayyad, Mr Abbas said yesterday Mr Fayyad's government had his full support. "There is no disparity between me and the government," he said. "They follow my orders and I am committed to their policy development and recommendations."

Mr Abbas said as long as the protests were peaceful, the PA would allow them. "I am against armed uprisings," he said. "I am against opening fire, because I know how the consequences of doing so affect our people.

"I am pro peaceful demonstrations, whether they are against the occupation or against the PA."

Mr Abbas reaffirmed that the PA would make a new attempt on September 27 to be recognised by the UN - this time by the General Assembly, as a non-member, observer state. The US headed off last year's attempts for recognition by the UN Security Council.

"When we go to the UN, we will say we are a state under occupation," Mr Abbas said.

"We have 133 states who recognise a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in addition to dozens of other countries with whom we have good relations and diplomatic representation."