PA PM: Israel must stop “theft” of PA tax transfers, international community must investigate
Headline: "Shtayyeh called to create an international system to monitor the fulfillment of the commitments and check the Israeli deductions"
"[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called on the donor states to agree to create a monitoring system to measure the fulfillment of the commitments and agreements in order to make these meetings more effective and to obligate Israel to monitor the fulfillment of its political obligations. Shtayyeh said this in regard to violations of international decisions and agreements that were signed by Israel and its continued shirking of its obligations.
During the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) donor meeting that was held at the UN headquarters in New York, … the prime minister demanded to stop the illegal Israeli deductions (i.e., referring to Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law to deduct terror salaries; see note below) that constitute a blatant violation of the Paris protocol (i.e., the Paris agreement, see note below) and to stop the use of the Palestinian tax money for political extortion.
Shtayyeh continued: 'The theft of our money must stop. We call to carry out an immediate and independent investigation in order to guarantee precision, fairness, and transparency in the transfer of our tax money in an orderly fashion and without delays or exorbitant management fees."
Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018. During the parliamentary vote, the law's sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations... from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018] In accordance with the law, as of September 2021 Israel’s Security Cabinet had ordered the freeze of 1.857 billion shekels ($580.15 million) - the sum equivalent to the PA payments to terrorists in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Paris Agreement – agreement on economic relations between Israel and the PLO, signed in Paris on April 29, 1994. Its main goal is to promote peace by establishing economic relations modeled on EU economic relations.