The Israeli Cabinet approved today the deduction of the equivalent of funds the Palestinian Authority allocates to the families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and those who were killed by Israeli forces from tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Israeli media sources said the Israeli cabinet approved a decision to deduct $597 million Shekels from the PA tax revenues; the sum equivalent to the amount paid by the PA in the year 2020 to prisoners detained in Israel and their families.

The withholding of Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority is a recurring issue. This act clearly violates the provisions of the Paris Protocol. The 2019 UN report ‘Economic costs of Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people’ stresses how it cripples the Palestinian Authority and its ability to meet its financial obligations, in particular paying wages to public sector workers and covering current expenditures in the public budget, said the European Parliament.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency