Israel Responds to Move to Recognize Palestinian State by Withholding Funds ( www.nytimes.com )

Israel will not transfer much-needed funds to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the decision by three European countries to recognize a Palestinian state, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, as its foreign minister denounced the European moves as giving “a gold medal to Hamas terrorists.”

The decision by the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader who opposes Palestinian sovereignty, threatened to push the Palestinian government into a deeper fiscal crisis. He said in a statement that he had informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would no longer send tax revenues to the authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank in close cooperation with Israel.

Mr. Smotrich’s office signaled that the decision was at least partly a response to Spain, Norway and Ireland recognizing Palestinian statehood, and that the Palestinian leadership bore responsibility for campaigning for the move.

Delta_V ,

As far as I can tell, Israel does not actually collect money from people living in Gaza or the West Bank. The local governments of those places collect taxes themselves.

Israel taxes imports into Israel, and made a deal with PLO in 1994 to gift them some of that revenue. That deal expired in 1999, but until now Israel kept giving them free money anyway.

GrymEdm OP ,
@GrymEdm@lemmy.world avatar

I'm not sure if they collect all taxes, but according to the article they do collect at least some (and a meaningful amount):

"Under decades-old agreements, Israel collects customs and import taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Those revenues constitute most of the Palestinian budget, particularly as international aid has declined. "

small44 ,

And some will still have the audacity to say that palestine is not colonized

GrymEdm OP ,
@GrymEdm@lemmy.world avatar

So in addition to all the other forms of control, Israel collects and can restrict Palestinian taxes. Tell me again, Israeli propagandists, how Israel doesn't actually occupy what is rightfully internationally known as Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Linkerbaan ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

It's not an Apartheid because anyone calling it an Apartheid is worse than Hitler - Ben Gvir.

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

The US will just send the money to Palestine instead of Israel now, right?

GrymEdm OP ,
@GrymEdm@lemmy.world avatar

My guess is: not for several years, and then it will be part of an incredibly expensive reparations deal to rebuild what American munitions are currently destroying.

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

I don't think the US believes in reparations.

Maeve ,

DC did, once: www.snopes.com/fact-check/slave-owners-paid-reparations/

QuantumSpecter ,

Personally, I don't understand why the US government has continued to fun Israel when it's clearly failed to become a disaster. They've spent over $250 Billion on Israel aid, and it's failed.

Ab_intra ,

Because there is strong lobbies in the US that has direct impact on elections. They are som of the strongest lobbies in the US and are jewish. If one party leader goes against them they will make it so that they lose the next election.

juicy ,

It's not just Jewish lobbyists. Arguably more important is the Zionist Christian fundamentalists in the US who think they are hastening the rapture and the apocalypse.

Buelldozer ,
@Buelldozer@lemmy.today avatar

Arguably more important

I don't think that's arguable at all. The impact of the hundreds of millions of dollars that AIPAC has spent is by far and away the largest problem. In fact its quite likely that it's their money that's keeping the "Zionist Christians" on the boil and in office to begin with. Take away that delicious AIPAC money and the support of "Zionist Christians" will quickly dwindle.

juicy ,

One of the very first proponents of Zionism was an American evangelist in the 1890's named William Blackstone who circulated a petition in support of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. He collected signatures from "431 prominent citizens..." Including:

[F]inanciers John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan, future President William McKinley, and Chief Justice Melville Fuller; many members of Congress; the editors of all major newspapers in those five cities, including the still-extant The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Post; and a long list of university and seminary presidents, mayors, and leading businessmen.

May 16, 1916, Nathan Straus, at the behest of (later Supreme Court Justice) Louis Brandeis wrote Rev. Blackstone. “Mr. Brandeis is perfectly infatuated with the work that you have done along the lines of Zionism. It would have done your heart good to have heard him assert what a valuable contribution to the cause your document is. In fact he agrees with me that you are the Father of Zionism, as your work antedates Herzl".[3]

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