Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel begins transfer of funds to Palestine
Israel said it had begun the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax funds to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday after a break of 17 months, hoping to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas and isolate Hamas.
- Agencies
- Published: 08:07 July 2, 2007
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel said it had begun the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax funds to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday after a break of 17 months, hoping to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas and isolate Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said steps taken by Abbas to try to rein in militants since Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last month could also lead to progress on the diplomatic front, but he offered no specifics.
Israel froze the tax transfers on February 1, 2006 after the Islamist militant group won parliamentary elections.
A senior Israeli official said the transfers had now resumed. Officials said the first payment would be at least $50 million -- about a month's worth of revenues -- though it was not sure to reach the Palestinians before Monday.
Israel is making the payment to the emergency government set up by Abbas in the occupied West Bank after he dissolved a unity government led by Hamas.
The freeze on transfers, coupled with sanctions imposed by Western powers, had prevented workers from receiving full wages for nearly a year-and-a-half and pushed the Authority to the brink of financial collapse.
Those sanctions were lifted last month on Abbas's government but remain in place against the Hamas administration in Gaza.
In addition to resuming automatic transfers of current tax revenues, Israel said it would transfer all of the accumulated frozen funds to Abbas's government in five or six installments over the next six months.
Palestinian officials estimate that Israel is holding more than $700 million. Israeli officials say the figure is closer to $500 million, and that $300 million to $400 million is all that is available for transfer to Abbas because the rest of the money has been frozen by court order to cover Palestinian debts.
Abbas's emergency government plans to make its first salary payments this week.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has promised to pay tens of thousands of civil servants working in Gaza as long as they do not follow Hamas's orders. Members of Abbas's security forces in Gaza will also receive money, but only if they stay at home, according to Western diplomats briefed on Fayyad's payment plan.
Hamas has called Israel's release of the tax money "financial bribery" and "political blackmail" meant to stoke divisions after Hamas forces routed Abbas's secular Fatah faction to seize control of the Gaza Strip.
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
News Editor's choice
-
Kuwait condemns Houla massacre
Arab League urged to put end to oppression of Syrian people
-
Road crashes main cause of child death in UAE
Death rate among children in car accidents in the UAE is three times higher than global average
-
Last minute ID rush is on
Expatriates in Dubai have thronged typing centres and Emirates ID registration offices to meet the May 31 registration deadline
