ISRAEL HAS decided to continue withholding tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians which were frozen last month after the UN cultural organisation Unesco accepted Palestine as a full member.
Yesterday’s decision by the security cabinet to keep the €73 million collected in October came despite warnings from defence minister Ehud Barak and intelligence officials that the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority may be forced to withhold salaries from its security forces, endangering West Bank stability.
Israel decided to withhold the transfer of tax revenues, which it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinians under the terms of the Oslo peace agreements, after denouncing the Unesco membership bid as a “unilateral Palestinian manoeuvre that further removed chances of reaching peace through direct negotiations”. Israel also accelerated construction of 2,000 West Bank homes. The Israeli punitive measures were condemned by Washington and the EU.
Yesterday’s move came as the quartet of peace mediators – the US, the EU, Russia and the UN – failed to get Israel and the Palestinians to renew direct peace talks.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair “called upon the parties to create a conducive environment for restarting talks and urged them to refrain from provocative actions”, the quartet said.