The Finance Ministry confirmed that it has not released Palestinian Authority tax revenues for a year, after PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said that the lack of transfers has left the authority cash-strapped and unable to pay employees.

Speaking at a press conference Sunday marking the conclusion of local elections in PA areas the previous day, Mustafa said, referring to Israel, “The occupation has been cutting our funds for years, but the intensity of the cuts has increased over the past 12 months.”

He added, “In the past year, not a single shekel of tax revenues has been transferred to us. We are living without tax income in an attempt to destroy the institutions of the State of Palestine. All residents are suffering, particularly PA employees.”

The funds in question are tax revenues on goods entering Israel that are destined for the Palestinian Authority. Israel collects these funds and is supposed to transfer them to the PA, which is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah and governs daily affairs in the territory’s Palestinian population centers, under the terms of the 1990s Oslo Accords. The revenues account for roughly 60 percent of the PA’s income.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed that he had withheld April’s clearance revenues, totaling NIS 740 million ($248.7 million), continuing a policy that has been in place for about a........

© The Times of Israel