PA to stop paying Gaza's electric bills

Get ready for more staged heartbreaking photos of Gazans with candles.

Remember this staged photo from Reuters?

Palestine Today reports that the Palestinian Authority has informed the Hamas-led Gaza government that it will phase out payments of Gaza's electric bill over the rest of the year.

Currently, the Ramallah government pays an Israeli electric company to provide electricity to Gaza.

In September, the PA paid 40 million shekels for Gaza's electricity, but it plans to reduce that amount by 10 million shekels a month down to zero by January 2012.

The PA told the Gazans that they will have to pay for their own electricity, as the financial crisis is forcing the PA to reduce services.

The PA pointed out that some 70-80% of Gaza's electric customers have not been paying their bills, and that the Gaza utility companies must do a better job collecting their bills.

As far as I can tell, despite this financial crisis, the PA continues to pay salaries to terrorists in Israeli prison and stipends to their families. Some things are just too important to consider cutting.

Especially since they know that any electricity shortage in Gaza will be blamed on Israel anyway.