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2019-08-23 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Palestinians agree to some tax transfers from Israel as cash crunch mounts
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| Principles are expensive. The PA, which doesn’t get donations from generous terror-supporting entities like Iran, simply can’t afford them anymore. |
[IsraelTimes] PA to take in around NIS 2 billion in money from fuel taxes while Ramallah attempts to deal with shortfalls amid dispute over terror payouts.
The Paleostinian Authority, in deep financial trouble since February over a tax crisis, said Thursday it had accepted a partial payment of just over half a billion dollars after reaching an agreement with Israel.
"An agreement was reached a few days ago with the Israeli side for transferring duties on oil and fuel which the Paleostinian Authority bought in Israel to the amount of around two billion shekels ($568 million)," Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh told AFP.
Continued from Page 2
The PA has seen its coffers shrink since cutting off tax transfers from Israel in February to protest Israel garnishing the transfers to offset payments to holy warriors and their families. Israel says the policy encourages further violence, while PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
has insisted he receive all or nothing.
The money covers taxes on fuel that previously were routed through Israel, which collects some $190 million on taxes a month on behalf of Ramallah.
"Recovering this money will solve part of the financial crisis caused by the Israeli government’s freezing of Paleostinian funds," said Sheikh, while stressing that it was only part of the arrears due from Israel.
| Has the PA paid all the utility bills it owes Israel? At one point during the Obama years, they had neglected to pay about $1 billion on electricity alone. |
Sheikh said the underlying political dispute had not been resolved, as the PA insisted that it would continue to pay allowances for Paleostinian prisoners and the families of those killed in conflict with Israel down to the "last cent."
He said that representatives of Israel’s Defense Ministry were present during the recent negotiations.
Israel sees the stability of the West Bank as essential to its own security.
Observers are concerned that economic distress in the territory could feed radicalization of young Paleostinians, already embittered by the lack of visible prospects for peace.
Official Paleostinian figures show that about 30 percent of the West Bank population is aged 15-29.
| Real numbers are probably considerably less — some years ago their real population was about one million less than claimed. As there has been no official correction, over-counting births, ignoring deaths, and double counting the Arab population of Jerusalem has no doubt continued. |
Such considerations will be key in the calculations of the Israeli government as it heads for what will probably be a tough fight for reelection in a September 17 poll.
World Bank data shows that gross domestic product "barely" grew at all in 2018 in the West Bank and the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
Strip ‐ a Paleostinian enclave ruled by Islamist terror group Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, ‐ with unemployment at as high as 50% in the Strip, and at around 30% in the West Bank.
Abbas had accused Israel of blackmail through its withholding of funds, insisting on the full amount, which accounts for around 65% of PA revenues.
The money comes from customs duties levied on goods destined for Paleostinian markets that transit through Israeli ports.
On Monday Abbas fired all of his advisers over the financial shortfall.
| ...and demanded that they return their bonuses, thugh he isn’t likely to get lucky there. |
The PA has already cut salaries for most of its tens of thousands of employees by half to keep the government afloat.
| In the West Bank, too?, I know they did for their employees in Gaza, who’d all been replaced by Hamasniks. |
On top of the tax dispute with Israel, the United States has cut more than $500 million in aid to Paleostinians via various programs.
That came after Abbas announced a freeze in relations with Washington in protest at US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-08-23 00:00||
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