Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki was returning from a visit to Brazil on Sunday, January 8, when he was held up for thirty minutes at the Israeli border crossing with Jordan, the only gateway for Palestinians to the West Bank. busy. Jewish state customs officials then informed him that his VIP permit, which facilitates his entry and exit, had been withdrawn. The measure is part of a series of sanctions adopted by Israel’s security cabinet last week against the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA).
Binyamin Netanyahu’s government did not appreciate that the Palestinians voted on December 30, 2022, a resolution at the UN General Assembly asking the International Court of Justice to examine the legality of the occupation. Israeli. The non-binding text also demands that Israel put an end to colonization in the occupied territories; it was approved by 87 States – France abstained.
The PA has decided “to launch a political and legal war against the State of Israel. This government will not stand idly by.”, replied the Prime Minister’s Office in a press release published on January 6. He details several measures, including the withdrawal of VIP permits from certain Palestinian officials and a moratorium on Palestinian construction, already largely restricted, in Area C, which represents 60% of the West Bank.
The Israeli Ministry of Finance will also take money from taxes and customs revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the authorities in Ramallah, the PA having no control over its borders. Some 139 million shekels (37 million euros) will thus be donated to fifteen Israeli families of victims of Palestinian attacks. In addition to this, the Jewish state should reserve several tens of millions of shekels – the exact amount has not been specified – supposed to correspond to the equivalent of the subsidies that the PA pays to Palestinian prisoners in Israel and to their families.
“Collective punishment”
Ces sanctions “aim to bring down the Authority [palestinienne]to push it financially and institutionally”, condemned the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, during the Council of Ministers on January 9. Hamas urged the PA to “don’t give in”. In reality, Israel regularly collects part of the taxes and customs duties it owes the Palestinians since 2019. According to the calculations of the head of the Palestinian government, the Jewish state has thus withheld some 570 million dollars (531 million euros ) for three years, a sum supposed to correspond to the amount of the payments to the Palestinian prisoners.
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