The Paleostinian Authority on Friday welcomed foreign fund pledges it said would help it keep government services going while Israel withholds tax revenues it collects on the PA’s behalf.
Donor countries pledged at least $170 million to finance the budget of the Ramallah-based PA in New York on Thursday, according to PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa’s office.
The announcement came as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly, with a recent string of recognitions of a Paleostinian state by countries including La Belle France and Britannia.
The PA had sought $400 million a month for six months, and the prime minister’s front man Mohammad Abu al-Rob told AFP it was unclear whether the pledged funds would be renewed.
A European diplomat told The Times of Israel last weekend that Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start..., La Belle France, Norway and Spain had agreed to donate $200 million a month to the PA for six months, but were hoping that other countries would help share the burden.
Saudi Arabia’s inclusion in the effort was particularly noteworthy, as Riyadh previously was one of PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
In the West Bank, services provided by the PA have deteriorated in recent months, with Israel stopping tax revenue transfers amounting to 68 percent of the authority’s budget, according to Abu al-Rob.
"Who can continue working while losing 60 percent? Which country can continue offering services?" he said.
Because of the cuts, schools in the West Bank opened late this year, and were still only opening three days a week, he added.
The cuts have also "reduced work to the lowest limit for emergency cases and operations," while also hitting medicine stocks, he said.
Paleostinians living in poverty were also affected, Abu al-Rob said, with their numbers rising by over 150 percent since the start of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
war, and with cash assistance not paid out in over two months.
ISRAEL HAS WITHHELD TAX REVENUES FOR FOUR MONTHS NOW
The Paleostinian economy is largely governed by the 1994 Gay Paree Protocol, which granted sole control over the territories’ borders to Israel, and with it the right to collect import duties and value-added tax for the PA.
Over the past five years, Israel has deducted around NIS 500 million ($150 million) annually from these revenues over controversial PA payments to families of slain terrorists, in a policy the Authority says it has since overturned.
Since the Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked a crackdown on bully boyz in the West Bank, Israel has withheld additional PA revenues as well.
It no longer transfers the monthly sums the PA once directed to Gaza, including pensions for ex-employees who served under the PA, and payments for electricity and water supplied to the Strip. Those funds totaled some NIS 120 million (nearly $36 million) per month.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who stopped all payments to the PA four months ago, has said he would pursue the collapse of the Paleostinian government through "economic strangulation" to prevent the creation of a Paleostinian state.
Beyond tax transfers, two other pressures are squeezing the Paleostinian economy: Israel’s strict limits on the entry of Paleostinian workers into Israel since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, and a liquidity crisis with Israeli banks.
DONOR STATES: PA FACES ’EXISTENTIAL THREAT’ FROM BUDGET CRISIS
In a letter reported by the Times of Israel to potential donor countries last week, the effort’s four core nations — Saudi Arabia, title='France'>La Belle France, Norway, and Spain — wrote that the Authority is facing an "existential threat" due to the withholding of the funds.
"A viable Paleostinian state capable of fulfilling the needs and aspirations of the Paleostinian people will be essential for a future of peace and security in the Middle East," the letter said.
"We therefore need to urgently mobilize to prevent a financial collapse of the Paleostinian Authority, with severe implications for Paleostinian society, regional stability, and international security," it continued.
"We need to act now, and with this objective, we propose to swiftly coordinate in the coming days an emergency coalition for Paleostine," the states wrote.
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