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PA to cut salaries after tax row with Israel
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced new austerity measures after Israel withheld some tax revenue in protest at payments to convicted terrorists and their families.
Palestinian Authority Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said on Sunday that the PA will reduce salary payments by 40 per cent for those who received more than NIS 2,000 (approx. £421) per month. Bishara said that 50 per cent of the thousands of PA employees will receive their paycheck of NIS 2,000 or less, and that the PA has taken out a $50m loan, and will continue to do so on a monthly basis “during the coming period”.
Bishara said the PA was: “Entering a new a phase of confrontation with the enemy and will likely face difficulties in the weeks ahead.” He added that the Finance Ministry will take out loans from 14 local banks to offset the decision by Israel’s Security Cabinet to withhold £107m in tax transfers to the PA, the amount that is paid to persons convicted of terrorist offences and their families.
The law authorising the Israeli Security Cabinet to withhold the funds was passed last July but only enforced now after political pressure on the Government to act after the murder of Ori Ansbacher. In response, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not accept any funds from Israel unless it provides the full amount of tax revenue it owes the PA.
Yesterday, President Abbas appointed Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh as the new Prime Minister of the PA. Some analysts have interpreted the appointment of Shtayyeh as part of Abbas’s efforts to further isolate Hamas.
Hamas slammed the appointment of Shtayyeh and said it reflected: “Abbas’s unilateralism and monopoly of power. Hamas stresses that it does not recognise this separatist government because it was formed without national consensus.”
Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald President Trump’s Middle East envoy, reportedly defended Israel’s decision to withhold PA tax revenue during a closed door meeting of the UN Security Council over the weekend.
According to a report in Channel 13 News, he said: “It is entirely inappropriate to focus on Israel as the source of this crisis. It is the Palestinian Authority that has chosen to manufacture the current crisis. The Palestinian Authority is refusing to accept more than $150 million in revenue to protest the fact that $11 million is being withheld, only to make a political point. Does that sound like a governing authority that is concerned with the welfare of its people?”