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Saturday, April 18, 2015
[Mechanism to review debts] Abbas: Israel to Release Total Withheld Palestinian Tax Revenues

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It is premature to judge if this series of events
was an Israeli victory or failure. The PA formally acknowledges that it has
to pay back the billions it owes to Israel with a "joint Palestinian-Israeli
committee tasked with reviewing all debts". Let's mark our calendars for 18
October, 2015. If half a year has passed and a recommendation for repaying
Palestinian debt hasn't been implemented then referring the matter to a
committee was an Israeli loss. On the other hand, if the money starts to
move it will be a testament to Netanyahu. ]

Abbas: Israel to Release Total Withheld Palestinian Tax Revenues
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28322

RAMALLAH, April 18, 2015 (WAFA - PLO news agency) – President Mahmoud Abbas
announced Saturday that Israel will release the total amount of Palestinian
tax revenues it has withheld since last January in retaliation to the
Palestinian Authority’s accession to the International Criminal Court.

Referring to Israel’s decision to release the tax revenues after payments
for ‘services’ provided to the Palestinian people are deducted during March,
Abbas stated the Palestinian leadership rejected the Israeli government’s
decision to release the withheld Palestinian tax revenues after deducting a
third of their total amount.

“The Israeli government has agreed to hand over the total amount of the tax
revenues, amounting to almost half a billion dollars, and to form a joint
Palestinian-Israeli committee tasked with reviewing all debts, “ said Abbas
during a PLO Executive Committee’s meeting at the presidential headquarters
in Ramallah.

Abbas expressed the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to accept the
decision to be taken by the joint committee on paying off the PA’s debts for
services.

The PA’s President added that the government would be able to fully pay
public servants’ April wages.

Palestinian local media, Maannews, reported on Minister of Civil Affairs
Hussein al-Sheikh as announcing that Israel will transfer the withheld tax
revenues amounting to about half a billion US dollars (1.8 billion shekels)
on Sunday or Monday.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah stated Friday that Israel pledged to release
the funds during a meeting held with Palestinian officials and that an
agreement has been reached over reviewing all Palestinian debts with the
attendance of the joint Palestinian-Israeli committee and not by Israel's
side only.

Israeli media, Haaretz, reported that based on the understanding reached in
this regard, Palestinian and Israeli officials “agreed to a major offsetting
of roughly half a billion shekels that Israel withheld from tax revenues
collected between December and February, meant primarily to repay debts to
the Israel Electric Company.”

“Also, according to understanding reached between the two sides, Israel will
significantly reduce the amount withheld from March and April tax revenues
to offset the Palestinian debt. Going forward, Israeli and Palestinian
representatives will continue to discuss the remaining debt as well as both
sides' obligations,” reported Haaretz.

The joint Palestinian-Israeli committee tasked with reviewing the
Palestinian debts to Israel will convene in the near future to review and
resolve the debt claims between the two sides.

Abbas referred to the decree he issued Friday that will see a day's wages
from all PLO and Palestinian Authority staff, both military and civilian,
donated towards Yarmouk Refugee Camp, in Syria.

After being re-elected as Israel’s Prime Minister in March, Benjamin
Netanyahu decided to release the tax funds after deducting payments for
services provided to Palestinians, including accumulated debts for
electricity, water and hospital bills.

The Palestinian Authority refused to receive the funds, arguing that the
deductions made by Israel to cover services provided to the Palestinians
were not ‘agreed upon’ and were decided unilaterally by the Israeli
government.

The Israeli government decided to withhold around half a billion dollars in
tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on imports
and exports over the last four months in reprisal for the PA’s accession to
the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try Israel for war crimes.

PA formally applied to join the ICC on January 2nd following the United
Nations Security Council’s failure to pass a Palestinian draft resolution
setting a deadline for ending the Israeli occupation and establishment of
the Palestinian state.

The Israeli government’s move to freeze the transfer of Palestinian tax
revenues has been widely denounced as an illegal and retaliatory move that
would only serve to escalate tensions and prevent the Palestinian
institutions from effectively functioning.

Israel has frequently resorted to halting the transfer of Palestinian tax
revenues and exploited it as a political instrument intended to punish the
Palestinians for their political choices and attempts to secure the
establishment of their state through international diplomatic means.

As a result of the Israeli measure, the PA has been incapacitated from fully
paying approximately 170,000 public servants on its payroll, which costs
between $160 and $170 million a month.

Under the Protocol on Economic Relations signed in 1994, Israel transfers
$175 to the PA each month in customs duties levied on goods destined for
Palestinian markets that transit through international borders.

Acting to address the financial crisis it is gripped with, the PA has
borrowed from local banks to partially pay 60% of the public servants’
December, January, February, and March wages.

K.F./T.R.

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