Ramallah: The Palestinian Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday that the Palestinian government will only partially pay the salaries of public workers for the fourth month in row as the Israeli regime has not transferred Palestinian tax revenues despite its earlier promise to do so.
“We will pay 60 per cent of the salaries of the public workers and this partial payment will land in the banks by tomorrow [Thursday],” said Shukri Bishara, the Palestinian Finance Minister, in a statement. “The remainder of the salaries of the public workers will be settled when the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) gets the financial resources.”
Bishara confirmed that the partial payment of the public workers’ wages is due to the Israeli failure to transfer the tax revenues it collects on the PNA’s behalf.
On Tuesday’s Palestinian cabinet meeting, the Palestinian government announced it had received $60 million (Dh220 million) worth financial support from Saudi Arabia. The Palestinian government said that the Saudi financial aid will be used for the workers’ salary payments.
Last Friday, Israel announced it would release withheld Palestinian tax revenues. A PNA official then announced that the Palestinian Higher Financial Committee would hold a meeting with its Israeli counterpart to coordinate the transfer of the funds.
In an outcome, which has disappointed Palestinian public employees — who assumed the matter had been resolved and that they would get both their March salaries in full as well as the outstanding balances of the previous three months’ wages — the meeting has not occurred.
Including the month of March, Israel holds more than $400 million of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The PNA uses the tax revenues to pay the salaries of more than 160,000 public workers whose monthly salaries add up to $200 million. In recent months, the PNA has borrowed from local banks to make partial payments to workers.
In December last year, Israel decided to withhold the Palestinian tax revenues in a punitive measure after the PNA signed the Rome Statute to pave the way to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) recommended the PNA suspend the security cooperation with Israel in retaliation for the loss of the revenue.
On Wednesday, Palestine became an official member of the ICC and the way is currently paved for the PNA to file war crime charges against Israeli political and military leaders over colony activities in Palestinian territories and the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza. The Palestinian Prisoners Club has demanded the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails be yet another war crime filed at the ICC against Israel.
The Ynet news website has reported a secret deal between Israel and the Palestinians over the money. According to this deal, Israel will release the tax revenues and the Palestinians will maintain the security coordination and refrain from filing claims against Israel at the ICC.
For their part, the Palestinians have categorically rejected the report and insist that the ICC bid is still ongoing. Dr Wasel Abu Yousuf, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that Israel had decided to release the Palestinian tax funds to improve its image with the international community since Palestinians had repeatedly approached the latter regarding the withheld revenues. “Withholding the Palestinian tax revenues was major and serious piracy [and] we categorically reject [it], and we will make sure that Israel will not stick to this punitive measure any more,” he told Gulf News. “This money is purely Palestinian money — releasing it was announced for nothing in return.”