Smotrich rejects calls from US to release Palestinian Authority tax revenues

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejects calls from the Biden administration to release tax revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority.

“I hear that there are those who think that while our heroic soldiers and commanders are sacrificing their lives for the defense of the homeland, we should transfer money to this despicable enemy in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich tweets, attaching an article that quotes PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying that the “Palestinian people will not wave a white flag.”

“We will not repeat mistakes and assumptions that we paid dearly for,” Smotrich adds.

The finance minister has in the past called for the PA to be dissolved. In years past, he described Hamas as an asset, compared to the PA, which he preferred weak in order to limit pressure on Israel to engage in diplomatic talks.

Smotrich said Monday he had instructed the ministry to halt the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority and is urging the cabinet to reevaluate its policy on such funds, in light of what Smotrich characterizes as PA “support” for Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

The funds are part of customs duties Israel collects on behalf of the PA. Israel has made such deductions in the past, following 2018 legislation that cites the PA’s payment of stipends to terrorists and their families. But it only partially upholds the policy, as officials are keenly aware that the PA is dangerously close to financial collapse.