USA warns of destabilization
Israel’s finance minister cuts money for Palestinians
14.06.2024, 00:37
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Israel collects taxes and customs duties for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Finance Minister Smotrich is holding back 30 million euros and wants to pay the money to the Israeli victims of the Hamas massacre. The USA disapproves of the move.
Israel’s right-wing extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich wants to withhold funds amounting to 32.5 million dollars (around 30.3 million euros) from the Palestinian Authority and instead pay them out to Israeli terror victims. The minister wrote on the X platform that he had signed an order to this effect. He spoke of “historical justice”.
Smotrich accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of promoting terrorism and, for example, of paying money to families of Palestinian terrorists and prisoners. According to the minister, the compensation amounts set by Israeli courts for terror victims and their families should be deducted from the funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority.
The US government criticized the minister’s move as an “extraordinarily misguided decision” that risks destabilizing the situation in the West Bank. This contradicts Israeli security interests, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller when asked in Washington. “We have made it clear to the Israeli government that these funds belong to the Palestinian people,” said Miller. “They must be transferred to the Palestinian Authority immediately. They must not be held back. They must not be delayed.”
Payments to Hamas also stopped
Since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7, the Israeli authorities have been withholding certain parts of tax and customs revenues for the Gaza Strip in order to prevent payments to Hamas.
Israel collects taxes and customs duties on behalf of the authority. According to Norwegian figures, this money accounts for around 65 percent of the income of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, which also uses it to pay salaries. As part of an agreement with Norway, money from Israel flowed to the PA for the first time at the end of February. The PA pays social assistance to the families of Palestinian prisoners. The same applies to the surviving relatives of people killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers.