PA President Mahmoud Abbas attends the Arab League’s foreign ministers meeting to discuss unannounced U.S. blueprint for Israeli-Palestinian peace, in Cairo, Egypt, April 21, 2019.. (photo credit: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY/REUTERS)
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that he will not accept tax money from Israel after the Israeli government decided to withhold part of the funds, Army Radio reported.
“We want to live in peace with Israel, but not at any price,” Abbas said on Monday. “If Israel stops harming the implementation of agreements, then we will be ready to conduct a dialogue with it and live alongside as neighbors,” Abbas added.
The deduction in question is from the payments made by the Palestinian Authority to the families of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon held a meeting on Sunday to find a solution for the PA economic crisis. The government fear that the difficult economic situation they face will cause unrest among young people and consequently lead to riots – a scenario from which the defense establishment has warned.
According to a source familiar with the details, Netanyahu and Kahlon have not yet reached a solution on how to transfer the money to the Palestinians, which is supposed to pay the salaries of PA officials, among other things. A senior party official added that the fact that Netanyahu and Kahlon are working together on political issues can signal that Netanyahu has already decided to file the treasury portfolio to Kahlon in the next term as well.
On July 7, the Knesset passed legislation introduced by Avi Dichter (Likud) and Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) requiring the Defense Ministry to inform the security cabinet of how much the PA pays in “welfare payments to terrorists and their families,” which will then be deducted from the amount Israel transfers to the PA each month.
This legislation followed the passage of the Taylor Force Act in the US, which ended most US assistance to the Palestinians unless the PA stops payments to terrorists and their families, the so-called “pay-to-slay.”
Herb Keinon and Maariv contributed to this story.
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