RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – Palestine has condemned a decision by the Zionist regime to deduct 2.9 million U.S. dollars from the Palestinian tax revenue dues that the regime collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Zionist war minister Benny Gantz signed an order to deduct 2.9 million U.S. dollars from the Palestinian tax revenue dues. The sum is transferred by the PA to Palestinian prisoners in the regime’s jails, according to media reports.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, Qadri Abu Bakr, said in a press statement sent to Xinhua that he condemned the occupying regime’s decision.
He added that the decision comes within an Israeli policy to restrict the Palestinian prisoners and their families and to embarrass the PA.
“The decision is a violation of international norms and covenants,” Abu Bakr said.
According to the 1993 Oslo peace accords signed between the regime and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the occupying regime collects tax revenues on behalf of the PA and transfers the money to PA on a monthly basis. Israel often withholds the transfer as a way to apply pressure on the PA.
According to the media, the Israeli decision to deduct the money comes within the scheme’s framework “to combat terrorist organizations and the payments that the PA transfers to Palestinian detainees.”
The report said the confiscated sum is related to 86 Palestinian detainees and their families, adding that the regime authorities had instructed banks in which there are accounts for the detainees and their families to seize their money.