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Agence France-Presse

Israel said its security cabinet on Sunday decided to withhold US$138 million in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the withheld cash would be equal to that paid by the PA last year to “terrorists imprisoned in Israel, to their families and to released prisoners”.
Israel alleges the payments encourage further violence.
The PA says the payments are a form of welfare to the families who have lost their main breadwinner and denies it is seeking to encourage violence.
Many Palestinians view prisoners and those killed while carrying out attacks as heroes in their conflict with Israel. Palestinian leaders often venerate them as martyrs.

Senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official Ahmed Majdalani accused Israel and the United States, which has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid, of an attempt at blackmail.
US President Donald Trump’s White House is expected to release its long-awaited peace plan later this year that the Palestinians believe will be blatantly biased in favour of Israel.
The Palestinians cut off contact with the White House after Trump’s 2017 declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“The occupation government is seeking to destroy the national authority in partnership with the US administration of Donald Trump,” Majdalani said in a statement.
The move to withhold the money comes in response to an Israeli law passed last year allowing it to do so.
Israel collects around US$127 million a month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports, and then transfers the money to the PA.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu pledged to implement the law after a deadly Palestinian attack on a young woman.
He is running in an election scheduled for April 9, and has been seeking to shore up his security credentials in the eyes of voters ahead of polling day.
Palestinians walk Hebron pupils to school after monitors leave
Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu said “today I will submit for cabinet approval the (legislation on) deducting of the terrorists’ salaries from the Palestinian Authority funds.”
“Security officials will brief the cabinet on the scope of the funds. This is an important law which we have advanced, and today we will pass it exactly as I promised.”
The US$138 million is likely to be deducted incrementally over a 12-month period, according to local media reports.
Sponsors of the July law on Palestinian funds wrote at the time that the PA paid around US$330 million a year to prisoners and their families, or seven per cent of its budget.
It was not clear what caused the reduction in the amount.
The Palestinians have already facing a cut of more than US$500 million in annual aid by Trump’s administration, mostly to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinian Authority also said in January it will refuse all further US government aid for fear of lawsuits over alleged support for terrorism due to a recently passed US law.
Israel has withheld payments in the past, notably in response to the Palestinians’ 2011 admission to the UN cultural agency Unesco as a full member.
The PA, which has limited sovereignty in parts of the occupied West Bank, relies heavily on outside financial aid.


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Israel

Israel denies Palestinians US$138 million over payments made to prisoners

Israeli flags flutter atop a building in Jerusalem’s old city next to the Dome of the Rock mosque situated in the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city. Photo: AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem February 17, 2019. Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS *** Local Caption ***

Palestinians walk Hebron pupils to school after monitors leave

A Jewish settler shouts at Palestinian activists (in blue) during a protest in the West Bank City of Hebron, on February 10, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

epa07357775 An Israeli settler (R) argues with Palestinians wearing blue vests marking them as 'Observers' during a protest against the end of the mandate for the civilian Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) in the West Bank city of Hebron, 10 February 2019. The protest was aimed at marking the removal of the international observers mission from Hebron and anniversary of the so-called Cave of the Patriarchs massacre by Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein on 25 February 1994, that initially led to the establishing of the TIPH. EPA-EFE/ABED AL HASHLAMOUN

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Middle East

Israel claims payments encourage further violence, while Palestinian Authority says they are form of welfare
Move to withhold the money comes in response to an Israeli law passed last year allowing it to do so


Israel claims payments encourage further violence, while Palestinian Authority says they are form of welfare.
