WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s cabinet has agreed to deduct $176mn from the customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Maariv has reported.
According to the Hebrew-language newspaper, this is the same amount as the stipends that the PA paid to Palestinian prisoners held by the Zionist regime and their families last year.
The move has already been condemned by the spokesman for the PA presidency. “This is piracy and the theft of the Palestinian people’s money,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh. “President Mahmoud Abbas affirms that the rights of prisoners will be safeguarded despite such pressures, and he will not allow a penny to be deducted from the money paid to the Palestinian prisoners and their families.”
Abbas and the rest of the PA leadership, added Abu Rudeineh, regard the prisoners as freedom fighters in the struggle for liberation, al-Quds and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
He urged the international community to put pressure on the regime to cancel and end such “provocative” measures. “The Israeli regime must now review its positions and decisions to prevent the situation from reaching a dangerous impasse.”
Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, also slammed the Zionist regime’s decision.
“The occupation regime continues with its money piracy over the Palestinians’ funds and decides to deduct hundreds of millions of shekels to further embed the policy of financial blockade and steal our money in a step that adds to the daily escalation in our cities, villages, and camps and the legalization of our bloodshed,” he said.
The Zionist regime’s move comes in line with a bill passed in 2018 to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from the Palestinians over welfare payments given to Palestinian prisoners and their families as well as the families of those killed by the regime’s troops.