Ramallah - The "caretaker" government of Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Thursday published a list of some 103 Palestinian non-governmental organizations, which were outlawed under a decree issued by President Mahmoud Abbas. The list, published in the Ramallah-based, semi-official al-Ayyam daily, contained many NGO's which were either related to Hamas or Islamist.
The NGO's were closed down for technical reasons, including lack of proper registration, officials in Ramallah said.
But Hamas slammed the move and the published list as an attempt to crack down on it.
Abbas issued the decree shortly after the radical Islamic movement violently seized sole control of the Gaza Strip from his Fatah-dominated security forces in mid-June.
Hamas also charged that Abbas coordinated the move with Israel, which accuses Hamas-linked charities of facilitating militants by transferring money to the families of suicide bombers and financing other Hamas activities.
"This decision was coordinated with Israel and the US Administration and aims to weaken Hamas and uproot it," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza Thursday.
Fadwa Shaer, the director general of NGOs in the interior ministry in Ramallah, denied the allegation, saying the decision to shut down the charities or freeze their bank accounts "was based on precise and intensive review which showed that these organisations did not abide by the law and some existed only on paper."
But the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) too critized the move.
"PCHR is extremely concerned by the decision" to dissolve 103 NGO's, it said in a statement, adding it feared the step was another restriction civil society imposed as part of the state of emergency declared by Abbas on June 14.
