Palestinian Territory

Palestinian Tax Freeze

Earlier this month, Israel froze tax money owed to the Palestinian Authority (PA) after the PA asked for, and was granted, membership to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Israel said it will soon release the withheld funds but warned that the PA should discontinue its “unilateral steps” around peace talks.

Israel was angered by the PA winning its membership into UNESCO, but is still banking on the fact that members of the United Nations (UN) have vowed to veto any bill for Palestinian statehood that reaches the Security Council floor. Israel’s decision to release the tax-funds to Palestine was heavily influenced by the United States and other members of the UN. Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, noted the economic damages the frozen funds will cause to Palestine. Without the money that comes from these taxes, Palestine is unable to pay tens of thousands of its workers, as well as those who serve as a security force in cooperation with Israel. Israel has yet to pay these due funds to Palestine but there is a strong urgency to do so, as much of Palestine is very poor and unable to compensate for this large loss of around 100 million dollars. This is yet another tactic of Israel to deter Palestine from its goal of statehood. Israel has claimed that Palestine is attempting to bypass peace talks by campaigning for its statehood in various UN organizations, while at the same time, Israel freezes Palestinian’s obligatory funds. This is not a peaceful way for Israel to get what it wants but it may be affective. The action is actually quite violent in theory. Israel seems to be more interested in using its power to bully and scare Palestine into submission, not into “peace talks”.

Liberal

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/11/20111130122540554749.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15964983

November 30, 2011 at 11:41 pm