Israel Releases $65M in Palestinian Tax Money
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the transfer of some $63 million to the Palestinian Authority to help ease its economic crisis.
The transfer Tuesday evening came after Netanyahu consulted on the issue with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, and then asked his special envoy, Isaac Molho to coordinate with the Palestinian leadership, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The money is an advance on tax revenues collected for the Palestinian Authority by the Israel.
“We are working on several fronts in order to help the Palestinian Authority cope with its economic problems,” Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday during a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. “We have made several changes in the taxation agreements. We are advancing certain transfers. We have also helped with Palestinian workers and with a series of other steps in order to make things easier for them. Of course, there is a global reality and it is also related to the internal management of every economy, but for our part we are making efforts to help the Palestinian Authority survive this crisis. I hope that they will succeed in doing so; this is our in our common interest.”
Palestinians have been staging demonstrations in the streets of the West Bank since last week to protest against the extreme economic hardship.
The protests turned violent and destructive late Monday, with thousands of protesters burning tires and attacking police in the streets of Hebron and Nablus. Protesters also reportedly smashed the windows of the municipal building and a police station in Hebron. Palestinian taxi, truck and bus drivers also staged a one-day strike on Monday.
Civil servants did not receive paychecks for the month of August.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad announced measures Tuesday to ease the economic hardship, including lowering the value added tax and lowering prices on diesel, gas and kerosene.
Israeli officials are concerned that the unrest over economics and frustration with the Palestinian leadership could turn into a third Intifada directed at Israel, Reuters reported.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO