The Israeli General Security Agency (Shin Bet) warned the government that the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse due to recent Israeli measures targeting it.
According to what was reported by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, what it described as a strategic warning issued by the Shin Bet to the Israeli political leadership, warning it that its recent measures over the past years herald the economic and financial collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
The warning came against the backdrop of the Israeli Ministry of Finance – led by the leader of “religious Zionism” Bezalel Smotrich – withholding money from tax revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on goods imported into the Palestinian territories according to concluded agreements, from which the Authority benefits to cover about 70% of its expenses. And the salaries of its employees.
This is in addition to measures and attacks carried out by settler gangs, incursions by the Israeli army, and sabotage of infrastructure in Palestinian cities and towns in the occupied West Bank, which are burdening them in light of the cessation of external support for them.
Last May, Smotrich announced his refusal to transfer tax revenues (clearance) to the Palestinian Authority, and demanded the approval of a sanctions package against it in response to Norway, Spain, and Ireland’s recognition of the State of Palestine.
This comes at a time when Western officials warned of an “economic catastrophe” in the occupied West Bank if Israel does not renew the necessary exemption that Israeli banks need to maintain their relations with their Palestinian counterparts.
“I do not intend to transfer the clearance funds to the Palestinian Authority from now until further notice,” Smotrich said in a statement.
The clearing is tax and customs funds on imported Palestinian goods that are collected by the Israeli Finance Ministry and transferred monthly to Ramallah, after deducting part of it, in exchange for electricity and hospital debts, fines, and allocations that the Palestinian government disburses to prisoners and liberated prisoners.
The Palestine Monetary Authority, the institution acting as the Central Bank, said in a statement late last May that Israel is targeting the financial sector in Palestine, as part of a plan to blockade the Palestinian economy.
She added, “The repeated targeting by the Israeli occupation forces of exchange shops subject to its supervision and control, and of their workers, comes in the context of a campaign to strike the financial sector in Palestine, within the framework of a broader plan to strangle the national economy.”