UN urges Israel to immediately resume funds transfer to Palestinians
Abbas requests $100M in Arab League aid after Israeli cut-off; UN calls on Israel to immediately resume transfer of tax revenues to Palestinian Authority
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon expressed alarmed that Palestinians and Israelis are engaged in downward spiral of actions, and called on both sides to refrain from exacerbating existing divisions, a senior UN official said Thursday, adding that Ban calls on Israel to immediately resume transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
"We call on Israel to immediately resume the transfer of tax revenues," UN deputy political affairs chief Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen told the UN Security Council. "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is now entering unchartered territory, which, lamentably, seems to have dashed any immediate hope for a return to peace talks."
The news came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the Arab League to provide a "safety net" of $100 million a month to cover tax revenues withheld by Israel in retaliation for his attempt to join the International Criminal Court.
During a meeting with Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday, Abbas also called for the formation of a committee to launch a new bid seeking a UN Security Council resolution on ending the Israel's control of the West Bank, a month after the council rejected a similar initiative.
The ICC bid is part of a wider strategy aimed at bringing international pressure to bear on Israel. In response, Israel froze the monthly transfer of $120 million in taxes that it collects for the Palestinians, forcing the Palestinian Authority to halt salary payments for 153,000 employees.
The council's monthly meeting on the Middle East was the first on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the failure last month of a Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations Security Council.
Chief Palestinian delegate Riyad Mansour said his government was undeterred.
"In spite of this setback, we will continue to approach the Security Council," he said without elaborating. Mansour called the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues a "blatant act of reprisal and theft of Palestinian funds" and condemned Israel's "rabid settlement colonization."
Israel has condemned Palestinian moves, with Ambassador Ron Prosor accusing Palestinians of "running away from negotiations" and obstructing the peace process.
The ICC move paves the way for the court to take jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Palestinian lands and investigate the conduct of Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Neither Israel nor the United States is an ICC member.
The United States has suggested some $400 million in aid could now be in jeopardy. US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said the United States, an Israel ally, had been reaching out to both parties to try to reduce tensions and find a path forward.
"We continue to oppose unilateral actions by both sides that we view as detrimental to the cause of peace," Power told the Security Council, describing Palestinian moves to join the ICC and other treaties as "counter-productive."
Last week, Palestinian UN ambassador said the prosecutor of the ICC can immediately start examining allegations of war crimes against Israel if she chooses.
Riyadh Mansour said the Palestinians formal acceptance of the court's jurisdiction starting June 13, 2014 gives prosecutor Fatou Bensouda a green light to take up the question of alleged war crimes on Palestinian territory without waiting for Palestine to formally become a member of the court on April 1.
Fadi El Abdallah, a spokesman for the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, confirmed that the prosecutor can now in theory begin a "preliminary examination" of potential cases in the Palestinian territories. Those could include allegations of crimes during last summer's Gaza war and Israeli settlements.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
