Labor MK urges PM to order Smotrich to release more than NIS 1 billion in PA funds

Labor MK Gilad Kariv pens a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging the premier to direct Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to release over 1 billion shekels ($300 million) that he has been withholding from the Palestinian Authority since May.

Israel collects clearance revenues on the PA’s behalf and is supposed to transfer them to Ramallah on a monthly basis.

Following the May decision by the UK to sanction him and fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Smotrich stopped making the transfers, which make up a majority of the PA’s budget, and accordingly, have Ramallah once again teetering on the brink of collapse.

In his letter to Netanyahu, Kariv notes that the decision by Smotrich has been taken without any cabinet discussion or input from the security establishment and is in violation of Israel’s agreements with the PA.

The withholding of the funds severely harms the PA’s ability to provide services to millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and to continue security cooperation with the IDF, Kariv says. “The main beneficiaries of this harm are radical and jihadist elements, including the murderous Hamas organization, who seek to consolidate and deepen their hold and activities” [in the West Bank].

The risks posed by Smotrich’s decision “is written on the wall, and turning a blind eye to it is a dramatic omission that requires sobering up and immediate action,” Kariv adds.