Israel has a duty to work with the Palestinian National Authority as both sides have formally agreed to forego violence and have recognised each other despite deep mistrust. Therefore it is outrageous that Israel should have broken its obligations for so long by refusing to hand over Palestinian revenues that it has collected. The duplicitous Benjamin Netanyahu administration has just released the December tranche of payments of $127 million (Dh466.34 million) of tax and customs revenues, which it stopped in retaliation to Palestinian aspirations to join the International Criminal Court.
Netanyahu gave a particularly mendacious reason when he said that “given the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, one must act responsibly and with due consideration alongside a determined struggle against extremists”. The nonsense that Netanyahu pushes in public of Israelis fighting terror is designed to regain some American support. In fact, the real reason has more to do with the US being so disgusted with Netanyahu that it has hinted that it might support a French move to set a deadline at the UN of two years to recognise the Palestinian state.
No one has forgotten that Netanyahu won the recent Israeli elections by promising that there would never be a Palestinian state while he was prime minister. This refreshing moment of honesty from the Israeli right-winger disowned decades of his own diplomacy which seemed to back a two–state solution. But in reality Netanyahu never had any intention of giving anything to the Palestinians. He made sure that regardless of his rhetoric, the reality on the ground was firm Israeli control of the West Bank, and steadily expanding colonies that he has no plans to evacuate and return to Palestine at any time.
Netanyahu has a record of using anything he can find to manipulate and weaken the Palestinians. Stopping revenues is one that Palestine’s friends in the Arab world or European Union may be able to counter by guaranteeing the payment against future revenues.
