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Israel, PA discuss potential aid to Ramallah amid fears of economic collapse
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government has been in talks with the Paleostinian Authority to send hundreds of millions of shekels to Ramallah amid the latter’s growing budget crisis, sources in Jerusalem and Ramallah told The Times of Israel.A tentative agreement for an Israeli financial package worth NIS 800 million ($247 million) to the PA has been formulated, an Israeli official said on Friday, with another official familiar with the matter describing the deal as "practically done." There had been plans to announce the package before Bennett’s trip this week to Washington, where the Biden  ...the gang of subgeniuses trying to pass themselves off as the adults in chargeof the series of calamities characteristic of the administration of a mentally challenged geriatric case... is looking for Israel to act on rhetoric in favor of "deescalating the conflict" with the Paleostinians and to advance measures that strengthen the PA. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the financial package was not finalized in time for that. Senior PA official Ahmad Majdalani confirmed that talks on financial support were ongoing between the two sides. He said the funds would not be a loan, rather an advance on tax revenues Israel collects on Ramallah’s behalf. "There’s discussion around an advance on what we are owed, not a loan," Majdalani said. Both the Israeli and Paleostinian Authority finance ministries could not immediately be reached for comment. The PA government budget has also taken a serious hit, with a Western diplomat warning The Times of Israel in late July that the PA was "about to collapse due to lack of revenues." The majority of the budget is derived from tax revenues Israel collects on its behalf, known as clearance revenues. Under a 2018 Israeli law, Israel regularly confiscates money from the revenues to penalize Ramallah for its policy of paying stipends to Paleostinian security prisoners, those killed during Earlier in August, the Israeli government signed off on the confiscation of 600 million NIS ($186 million) over the course of six months. The figure was said to be approximately the same as what Ramallah pays out in salaries to terror convicts and families of so-called deaders in 2020. Posted by: trailing wife 2021-08-28 |
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