WEST BANK: Palestinian vulnerability exposed as Israel withholds money
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday sent out an urgent appeal for help saying he may not be able to pay for salaries for about 130,000 public employees or anything else if Israel does not release about $100 million in funds collected over the last month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel said Sunday that it has decided not to pay the funds after the Fatah faction, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, took steps to reconcile difference with Hamas, the Islamist movement which has ruled Gaza Strip since June 2007 and which does not formally recognize Israel.
At a news conference in Ramallah, Fayyad said that unless Israel paid the money it owes, he, in his capacity as finance minister, would not be able to pay the April salaries.
The funds Israel is withholding are tax revenues it collects on the Palestinian Authority's behalf, including value added taxes and customs on goods imported into the West Bank and Gaza Strip that enter through Israeli ports. Israel collects the fees and at the end of the month its finance officials meet with Palestinian counterparts to discuss transfer of this money. Soon after the meeting, Israel transfers the money to the Palestinian Authority treasury, which immediately pays salaries.
This time, the Palestinian Authority has not yet paid April salaries and may not be able to do that any time soon because Israel has decided to withhold the monthly payment.
“Israel has no right to withhold this money,” Fayyad said. “This is Palestinian money and it is not a grant or charity from Israel.”
Fayyad appealed for help from the donor countries to get him out of his predicament, first, by financial support, and, second, by pressuring Israel to release the funds. It is unclear whether Israel will be swayed.
— Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank
Photo: Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad addresses a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday. Credit: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images.
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ALSO IN WORLD
The Palestinians continue to be the victims of one of the greatest and most bizarre injustices of the modern era. Virtually the whole world knows it except for most Americans who have experienced generations of Zionist propaganda and media dominance like no other nation. Although views on the Middle East conflict are changing slowly, imagine a majority in the USA having either a knowledge base or the religiosity of those living in, say, Mississippi or Idaho. Zionists: give back the land, food, and money to the real indigenous inhabitants of Palestine: Palestinian Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
Posted by: Stefano888 | May 03, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Give them nothing!! Stop all visits to the Palestinians murders you hold in jail until they allow the UN to visit the Israeli prisoner. Gilad Shalit. Israel you are alone don’t fall, God is with you.
Posted by: frank Romano | May 03, 2011 at 11:04 AM
@ C. Collins - the entire manufacturing output of the entire Muslim world, excluding Turkey and Singapore, is less than 1/2 of that of tiny Finland. They are a society that lives off limited natural resources and they control the Western World with their hands on the oil spigot that effectively controls the prices. Were it not for artificial OPEC controls elevating oil prices, the Arabs would all starve. Prices have gone from $27 a barrel to over $100, but not the costs of production. That's a pirate economy.
Posted by: Dean Blake | May 03, 2011 at 10:08 AM
@ C. Collins - isrel does not have a formal Constitution, its does have only a set of formalized basic laws.
Please provide us with the street addresses and or plot numbers and the names of the former Arab owners from whom you allege land has been stolen. The Arabs have title to what they have title to. Now they want the land in between their sparce 7% holdings that was allocatd to the Jews under UNR 181 and 242 to create a contigious land mass to avoid interacting with their neighboring Jews - a self-imposed apartheid. Palm Springs isn't a contiguous land - its a 1 X 1 miles checkerboard of USA and Indian lands - no problem.
Next thing you are going to claim is that the illegal Mexican's in the USA don't have to pay their income taxes - everyone who works in a country pays taxes to that country to support the infrastructure that creates the jobs.
Posted by: Dean Blake | May 03, 2011 at 10:04 AM
I love all these leftist suckers falling for the Palestinian propaganda. They had a chance for their own nation and chose to try to defeat Israel militarily. Since then they have been terrorizing Israel with bombings, rockets, and killings.
Recently they fired an anti-tank missile at a yellow school bus and murdered a Jewish family including a baby. Hamas also just condemned the killing of Usama bin Laden.
Are you liberals really this stupid?
Posted by: Cryos | May 03, 2011 at 09:11 AM
According to Psalm 83 all of Israel’s next door neighbors will unite in an effort to wipe Israel completely off the map. But Israel will soundly defeat them and capture their lands as well. Enemies like Hezbollah, Lebanon, the Palestinians, Hamas, etc. will cease to exist, and the lands they now occupy will once again belong to Israel. (Many people don’t realize that even the land of Lebanon was originally given to Israel and will belong to Israel again in the Millennium.)
Posted by: Joe | May 03, 2011 at 07:10 AM
Those crazy Zionists...what are they thinking? They get thrown out 500BCE and end up in Babylonia and all they talk about is how they want to go home...then they do and build WALLS AROUND THEIR CITIES (SOUND FAMILIAR?)
then they get tossed out again by Rome and all they can do is talk about going back to "Rightful Palestinan lands"...I bet if we throw them out again they will just come back!! What is the matter with these Jews...don't they get it??
Posted by: Abu Liam | May 03, 2011 at 07:04 AM
"For Zionist Israel, nothing they do is shameless to their supporters and lackeys".
When the United States begin to finance knowingly al-Qaeda Israel will begin to finance the Hamas-Fatah coalition.
A deal....??
Posted by: Jehudah Ben-Israel | May 03, 2011 at 05:21 AM
Why should Hamas recognize Israel when they are illegally occupying Palestinian land as recognized by the international community? Israel is in violation of international law and continues to expand these illegal settlements. Israel doesn't recognize Palestine's right to exist and certainly isn't following any agreement past or present. The US should FORCE peace on them and then if anybody starts any more trouble we will know who.
Posted by: slimtata | May 02, 2011 at 10:41 PM
I cannot understand why Palestinians do not love Israeli politicians. They are good people, they may want to cripple your economy, keep you impoverished and dependent, ruin your chances at unity, and build some houses on your land, but other than that, they are swell people, man. Open your eyes, stupid Palestinians, show some love.
Posted by: neilm101 | May 02, 2011 at 10:40 PM
For Zionist Israel, nothing they do is shameless to their supporters and lackeys.
Posted by: Stefano888 | May 02, 2011 at 10:11 PM
When the Hamas-Fatah coalition meets the three simple demands of the entire international community, i.e. UN, US, EU, Russia and Israel, there can be, no doubt, a basis for continuing both peace talks and the reaching of an accommodation of peaceful coexistence between Arab and Jew, between the Muslim-Arab world and the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel.
The three simple requirements are:
1) Accepting of Israel's right to exist
2) Ceasing of all acts of terror and violence against Israel and its citizens, and all preparations for such acts
3) Adhering to all the agreements reached with Israel and signed by the parties
What has transpired of late is that the "moderate" Fatah has demonstrated its true self and has chosen to unite with Hamas into a single coalition that is eager to see Israel's demise and its Jewish citizens gone from their homeland.
Thus, there is no reason on earth why Israel should give a hand to those eager to eliminate it.
After all, no other country would do that, so, why should the national home of the Jewish people...??
P.S. Hamas, yesterday, condemned the killing of al-Qaeda's Osma bin-Laden, the same Hamas that is now in unity coalition with the "moderate" Fatah...!!
Posted by: Jehudah Ben-Israel | May 02, 2011 at 10:11 PM
Asking the indigenous Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza to recognize the Zionist regime's right to exist is akin to asking the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto to recognize the right of the Nazi regime to exist. A nation does not have the right to demand that others recognize its right to exist, that right can only be earned through actions, and right now the Israeli regime has a very long way to go to earn its right to exist.
Posted by: JDG | May 02, 2011 at 07:47 PM
@todd greetings.
is it not sad that radical islam feels justified in treating human beings in such a dispicable way,child bombers taught from birth to hate and kill in matters they dont understand and never will,taught by people who will never be happy until islam is the worlds religion people who force a cause of their makeing going back from the time of their birth taught by mad men who wish to beleive the world should belong to them and tell you so.
abused children become child abusers the terrorist islam way.
thank you.
Posted by: sam | May 02, 2011 at 06:45 PM
Israel has been mistreating Palestinians since 1948 .
Posted by: Ralph | May 02, 2011 at 05:59 PM
"steal palestinian land"
What are you talking about? There was no such thing as palestinian land. Learn some history. The land was Egypt and Jordan NOT palestinians.
Why didn't we hear complaints that the palestinians were occupied by Egypt and Jordan then? Of yea, cause you're anti-semetic.
Posted by: Jeff | May 02, 2011 at 05:55 PM
Hamas is a terrorist organization officially sworn to destroy Israel. It supports Al-Qaeda and has condemned the killing of Bin Laden, who they call a "holy warrior".
If the PA unites with such an organization, defying the Oslo agreements, why should Israel hold its end of the agreement and help finance those who seek to destroy it, those who target civilians intentionally, and shoot rockets at school buses?
When will the bias end LA Times?
Posted by: GM | May 02, 2011 at 05:54 PM
It's sad that the Isrealis feel justified in treating other human beings in such a despicable way. It reminds me of how abused children become child abusers.
Posted by: Todd | May 02, 2011 at 05:35 PM
When I looked up the *reason* why Israel decided to withhold the money (conveniently not to be found in this article), I found out it was because of the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, and Israel has declared that under these circumstances, it cannot be sure that money given to the PA will not end up with Hamas. As most sane people realize, Hamas is a terrorist group that denies Israel's right to exist. I'm sorry that decent people will lose income b/c of this, but Israel does have a right not to fund those who seek its destruction.
Posted by: Brianna | May 02, 2011 at 05:30 PM
If this is genuinely palestinian tax money paid by palestinians, then I grant their right to the money. But I also doubt that Israel just woke up one day and asked themselves, "what can we do to toy with the palestinians?" This article makes no mention of why the israelis decided to withhold the money. Shoddy work to say the least.
Posted by: Brianna | May 02, 2011 at 05:20 PM