Withholding of money is long overdue. Why should Israel help finance people who are dedicated to their destruction and incite their people to violence from cradle to grave. Its about time the PA suffered consequences for its actions. Ted Belman
Fayyad says taxes, fees Israel collects for PA ‘our money’; Norwegian PM says freeze ‘amounts to waterboarding an economy’
The Palestinian Authority is “fast approaching the point of being completely incapacitated” by Israel’s refusal to hand over tax revenues belonging to the authority, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.
Israel’s freeze on the taxes and fees it collects for the Palestinian Authority at borders has deprived the government of two-thirds of its normal revenue since Nov. 1, making it hard to pay salaries and fix infrastructure, Fayyad said.
“This is our money,” he said. “It has nothing to do with donor assistance or anything like that.”
He spoke at a press conference alongside Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who demanded an end to the policy that Israel imposed a day after the UN cultural agency UNESCO granted full membership to the Palestinians.
“It amounts to waterboarding an economy,” Stoere said, “because you almost kill it while allowing a small amount of air to come in.”
Israel has called the withholding of funds “temporary” and complained the Palestinians were unwilling to open direct peace talks, while Palestinian leaders have said they would talk only if Israel halts settlement activity in areas it occupies.
Fayyad said the frozen funds amount to some $100 million per month, or two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority’s revenue stream excluding international aid.
He spoke shortly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo with Khaled Mashaal, exiled leader of the radical Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza strip.
Fayyad reiterated that he was willing to step down if it would help heal divisions between the rival factions and pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections. Hamas has rejected him as head of a joint government.
Norway chairs a committee of aid donors to the Palestinian Authority, including the United States, Israel and the European Union.
So what is Norway‘s interest in this, aside from its blatant antisemitism? Crickets…
@ Yamit And others. Your comments are important. On this matter it would be very helpful if you monitor the various American Jewish publications like the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. I’m sure that they will respond by urging the Israelis “to keep their legal commitments” and to pay more attention to the world (Norwegian ambassador, etc.).
Your data and information should be there to counter the American Jewish liberal who will always latch on to the most outlandish ideas
. For example David Brooks a “conservative” columnist for the New York Times stated that everybody knows the final “solution” it’s just getting there politically that people don’t know how to do. Given, that the Islamists will never rest while there is a single Jew in Israel, this thinking “everybody knows” is obsolete and dangerous. By the Way, David Brooks is Jewish and sounds more liberal with every appearance. Maybe, it’s because his employers, the New York Times is the high priesthood of liberals, and Charlie Rose and PBS news hour, etc. and the other TV programs and invite him as a guest tilt to the left.
Millions if not billions are still owed the Israel electric corp. and other servicing institutions who provide services to the PA., not to mention unpaid debts by private Palis.
In any event these agreements were part of the Gaza-Jericho agreements and amended by the Cairo agreements and I believe they expired in 1999 and I don’t see were they have been officially extended by agreements. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Gaza-Jericho%20Agreement%20Annex%20IV%20-%20Economic%20Protoco
In any even article 11/11 says: Each side may require the re-examination of the arrangements set out in this Article a year after the date of the signing of the Agreement.
I demand that Norway mind its own effing business.
Very good point
Shouldn’t these funds be used to reimburse Israelis for the economic and physical damage emanating from the West Bank and from Gaza ( before Hamas ousted Fatah– and for Gaza is Hamas and Fatah in any way unify}.