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News / Palestine

Israel’s seizure of $129mn of Palestinians’ tax revenues act of ‘piracy, theft’: Minister

Sunday, 26 April 2020 5:32 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 26 April 2020 5:32 PM ]

Hussein Sheikh, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s Civil Affairs Commission

The Israeli regime has committed an act of “piracy and theft” by seizing around $129 million of Palestinians’ tax revenues, says a Palestinian minister.

Hussein Sheikh, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Civil Affairs Commission, made the comment on Sunday, a few hours after Israel's Central Court ruled the seizure of 450 million shekels (about $129 million) in tax revenue due to be paid to the Palestinian government.

The court claimed that it had ordered to withhold the money as compensation for the families of "Israeli victims" of purported operations that targeted Israeli interests, Palestine's official Wafa news agency reported.

"Such [Israeli] decisions bring us closer to decisiveness and the implementation of the decisions of the National & Central Councils," Sheikh said in a tweet, referring to previous resolutions – currently put on hold – of the National Council and the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on halting security coordination with the Israeli regime and suspending the agreements signed with Tel Aviv.

A new decision of piracy&theft of Palestinian money from the “Israeli Magistrate Court”reserving 450million in response to a settlers’ lawsuit against the #PA.Such decisions bring us closer to decisiveness& the implementation of the decisions of the National& Central Councils. https://t.co/5HIjx2PulT
— حسين الشيخ Hussein Al Sheikh (@HusseinSheikhpl) April 26, 2020

According to the report, the Israeli regime is already withholding millions of dollars due to the PA under the pretext that the Palestinian government makes monthly payments to the families of the Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons and those who have lost their lives by Israeli forces.

Back in February last year, Tel Aviv invoked a law to deduce tax revenues relative to the amounts the Ramallah-based PA pays to the Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails or the families of those killed by the Israeli military.

Palestinians reject tax revenues amid Israeli deduction

"We will not receive any money from Israel if it is incomplete," the Palestinian Authority president said.

At the time, a number of senior Palestinian officials condemned the decision, which they branded as “piracy and an illegal economic aggression.”

The stipends benefit roughly 35,000 families of the Palestinians killed and wounded by Israel. The PA says the payments are a form of welfare stipend to the families who have lost their main breadwinner. The Israeli regime calls that “terrorist salaries.”

‘Israel to deduct sums from tax revenue belonging to Palestinians’

The Israeli regime controversially plans to deduct certain amounts from the tax it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) before handing it over to the PA.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly defended such payments as an important function of his administration.

In a speech in June 2017, the head of the PA argued that “payments to support the families are a social responsibility to look after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones.”

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