Kahlon, Palestinian PM meet on improving economic ties

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah late Wednesday to discuss steps that the Israeli cabinet approved last month to improve economic ties with the PA and relieve restrictions on Palestinian movement prior to US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region last month.

These include expanded operating hours at key crossings through which large numbers of Palestinians travel. The Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan will run around the clock, while hours will be extended and infrastructures improved at other crossings.

The cabinet also approved establishing an industrial zone near the Tarkumiya crossing northwest of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

The plan further includes easing the enforcement of construction restrictions in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank known as Area C when they border on Palestinian population centers in PA-controlled areas A and B.

The Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990’s, divided the West Bank into three administrative areas — Area A, run exclusively by the Palestinian Authority; Area C, which contains most of the Israeli settlements and is run solely by the Israelis; and Area B, administered jointly, with the PA responsible for civil affairs and the IDF for security.

Kahlon and Hamdallah were joined by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and the PA’s Minister of Civilian Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh.

A statement from Kahlon’s Kulanu party said the confab was the latest in a series of meetings Kahlon has held with senior PA figures, and specified that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of the meeting.