RAMALLAH: Israeli Knesset member Osher Shekalim, from the Likud party, has recently presented a draft law requiring that the Israeli government to spend its frozen Palestinian tax funds on treating and compensating Israelis affected by “attacks” committed by Palestinians.
Israeli authorities still withold around $200 million of the Palestinian tax funds, preventing the Palestinian Authority (PA) from paying the salaries for its 140,000 public employees.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister refused last month to release a large part of the PA’s tax funds collected by Israel on goods imported to the Palestinian territories claiming the deducted part goes for Gaza and as a result the PA refused to accept the reduced transferred amount which prevented it from paying the salaries to its employees.
During a meeting with the White House envoy and the National Security Advisor to the US Vice President, Philip Gordon, in Ramallah, last week, President Abbas, stressed the need to release the Palestinian clearance and
tax funds held by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA