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Photo: AP
PA President Mahmoud Abbas
Photo: AP

Israel transfers PA funds as threat of sanctions wanes

After threat to freeze PA funds, Palestinians claim Israel begins to transfer money to PA in bid to keep its large public sector functioning and maintaining stability in West Bank.

Palestinian public sector workers received their salaries on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, in a sign that Israel had backed down from a threat to impose sanctions as peace talks began to collapse last month.

 

  

Israel had said on April 10 it would withhold funds after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a series of international human rights conventions he hoped would allow Palestinians to eventually challenge Israel at the United Nations, which recognized Palestine as a non-member state in 2012.

 

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US-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations ended on April 29 with no breakthrough.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)

 

Palestinian officials said the payment reflected Israel's decision to transfer more than $100 million in customs duties it collects on goods headed to Palestinian-run areas through border crossings it controls.

 

The money accounts for about two-thirds of the Palestinian budget and is key to keeping its large public sector functioning and maintaining stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

 

Israel had said it would dock payment of over $100 million it said the Palestinian government owed it in utility bills.

 

Israeli officials could not be immediately reached for comment because of Independence Day.

 

Speaking last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told reporters Israel would be paying the near usual monthly amount of 450 million shekels ($130.3 million) and only deducting 20 million shekels ($5.8 million) as part of a loan taken out by a previous Palestinian government.

 

Palestinians say their economy cannot reach its full potential while it remains under partial Israeli control. They seek an independent state in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

 

Israeli, Palestinian and US officials say they hope to revive peace talks given the right conditions.

 

The United States on Monday denied dismantling its peace negotiations team following the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinians peace talks led by Washington.

  

Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dismissed reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry had decided to dismantle the team of American negotiators who have been based on the ground in Jerusalem for months trying to push forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 

Chief negotiator Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, had returned to Washington for consultations, Harf confirmed, after last week’s April 29 deadline for a deal passed in a stalemate.

 

AFP contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.06.14, 19:35
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