Ramallah: The Palestinian National Authority announced on Sunday it will pay 60 per cent of the salaries of public employees this week. The Israeli regime had frozen the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues used to pay public servants salaries, as a punitive measure against Palestinians for its decision to join the International Criminal Court and prosecute Israel for its crimes.
Palestinian economic problems have intensified due to the withholding of taxes and over the weekend an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo had to allocate $100 million to assist the PNA to pay the salaries.
The government said that it would not be blackmailed by the Israeli regime and vowed to continue its pursuit of war crimes charges at the ICC.
However, according to the Israeli news site Walla, the Palestinian government said it would halt its pursuit at the ICC, if Israel would halt all colonial activities in Palestinian land. According to the website, the message was passed to the Israeli regime via Egypt and Jordan. According to the Israeli news site, the initial charge the PNA will use against Israel will be illegal Israeli colonial activities on Palestinian land, as this is a blatant violation of international law. Walla said that the PNA had already commissioned a legal committee to review and prepare all the files to be submitted to ICC, even before it officially is to become a member in this coming April. Walla said that the Palestinian leadership will ask the ICC to recognize and process only cases submitted by the official Palestinian representative and no other cases should be recognized by the court.
The Israeli regime is expected to come under intensified pressure to release the tax revenues in the coming month or two, according to Palestinian officials.
“Palestinians will never trade politics for money although the leadership is fully aware of the need of the Palestinian public for the salaries to survive,” said Mohammad Eshtaya, a member of the Fatah Central Committee.
The Palestinian government has also threatened to end its security coordination with the Israeli regime if it continues to freeze its tax revenues.
