Abbas rejects tax money from Israel, insists its funds go to terrorists and their families
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has rejected tax revenues collected by Israel following the Jewish state’s decision on Sunday to reduce 5% of what it gives to the P.A. due to the latter’s support for paying terrorists and their families.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas addressing the U.N. General Assembly on September 27, 2018. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak
Israel’s finance ministry announced on Wednesday that it collects around $193 million in Palestinian tax revenues and sends around $165.8 million of that to the P.A. after deducting payments for medical treatment services, sewage, water and electricity.
“We reject the tax; we don’t want it,” Abbas told visiting members of the U.S. Congress. “Frankly, if we are left with only 20 or 30 million shekels, which is the sum paid to families of martyrs, then we will pay them to the families of martyrs.”
The United States passed and enacted the Taylor Force Act last year that drastically reduced assistance to the P.A. in response to the latter using American taxpayer funds to reward terrorists and their families.
The United States has subsequently quashed other funding for the P.A.—from ceasing support for the U.N. refugee program for Palestinians, or UNRWA, to cutting U.S. security assistance to the P.A. in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act.
