The Paleostinian Authority said Sunday it will only be able to pay a part of public sector salaries this week as the Finance Ministry is continuing to withhold tax revenues that it collects for Ramallah, keeping up a squeeze on payrolls that has lasted for months.
Channel 12 reported over the weekend that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had been holding back NIS 170 million shekels ($46 million) in tax revenue for nine days, in protest of PA efforts "fighting against the State of Israel." It was an apparent reference to reports that Ramallah has been pushing for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials for alleged breaches of international law
…one can indeed see how that might rankle…
in 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 Hamas with 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
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
during the war against Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...The PA said it would pay Paleostinian public sector employees 50 percent of their March salaries on Tuesday after Israel withheld a transfer due for the month of April.
It said the arrears would be paid once the financial situation allowed.
The Finance Ministry confirmed it had been decided not to transfer tax revenues this month but declined to provide details.
The squeeze on public sector salaries, and the fact that tens of thousands of Paleostinians have been prevented from working in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October, have added to growing economic hardship in the West Bank.
Those jobs will be filled by others: Indians, Thai, ...
Israel collects hundreds of millions of shekels in Paleostinian tax revenue, which Smotrich held up earlier in the war over concerns that the portion of the funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services and employees in Gaza — roughly NIS 260 million ($73 million) monthly — could wind up in the hands of Hamas.
Although Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the rival Fatah faction in 2007, the Paleostinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, continues to fund some health and education services in the enclave.
An agreement was eventually reached in February to transfer the payments via Norway to ensure no money is diverted to the terror group.
But in a letter sent last month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and widely reported by Hebrew media, Smotrich wrote that the PA is an immediate danger to Israel and called on the premier to annex the West Bank if the Paleostinians don’t desist from their diplomatic efforts against Israel.