Palestinian Authority to Resume Taking Tax Money Collected by Israel
Error: Contact form not found.
by Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, Sept. 26, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson.
The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) will once again accept tax revenues collected on its behalf by Israel, after rejecting the money for months, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Friday.
The PA had stopped taking the money because of a dispute with Israel over stipends paid to the families of Palestinians militants killed or jailed by Israel.
The change of policy could help the PA relieve a deepening financial crisis. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Finance Ministry said that 1.5 billion shekels (about $430 million) would be handed over to the PA on Sunday.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA minister of civil affairs, said that following understandings reached with Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Thursday, both sides would begin discussions on a range of financial issues next week.
“The agreement was also on transferring a payment from the #PA’s financial dues. The dispute remains over the salaries of the families of #prisoners and #martyrs. We are determined to pay their dues at all costs,” al-Sheikh said on Twitter.
In February, Israel announced it would cut by 5 percent the approximately $190 million in tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinian Authority each month from imports that reach the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza Strip via Israeli ports.
The deducted sum represents the amount of money paid by the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, to families of Palestinians convicted and jailed by Israel for security offenses, including deadly attacks on Israelis.
The tax transfers make up about half of the PA’s budget, according to Palestinian Finance Ministry data. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has since February refused to accept the partial tax remittances from Israel, saying the PA is entitled to all the money under interim peace deals.
Israel calls the stipends a “pay-for-slay” policy and says it encourages violence. Palestinians hail their jailed brethren as heroes in a struggle for an independent state and their families as deserving of support.
The United States passed legislation last year to sharply reduce aid to the PA unless it stopped the pay-outs and the Trump administration last year cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid.
Analysts have warned that financial instability raises the risk of violence erupting in the West Bank.
Iran’s Top Negotiator Says Tehran Will Not Compromise in Talks with US
Trump Says Negotiators Are Getting Closer to Iran Deal, Media Interviews Show
Report: US Sidelined Israel From Iran Talks
Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Banned From French Territory
US and Iran Report Progress on Talks Ending War
Gabbard Resigns as Trump’s Top US Intelligence Official
Iran’s Intensified Closure of Strait of Hormuz Piles Misery on Stranded Sailors
US House Republicans Cancel Iran War Powers Vote
Report: Qatari Negotiating Team in Iran to Help Secure Deal to End War
Freed Gaza Flotilla Activists Allege Israeli Abuse Including Rape





Iran’s Top Negotiator Says Tehran Will Not Compromise in Talks with US
Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Banned From French Territory
US and Iran Report Progress on Talks Ending War
Report: US Sidelined Israel From Iran Talks
Trump Says Negotiators Are Getting Closer to Iran Deal, Media Interviews Show



