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Norway Urges Israel to Release Full Palestinian Tax Transfer

Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stoere addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2022. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stoere addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2022. (Reuters)
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Norway Urges Israel to Release Full Palestinian Tax Transfer

Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stoere addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2022. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stoere addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2022. (Reuters)

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere urged Israel on Monday to release the full tax transfer it is withholding from the Palestinian Authority (PA), saying the payment was "critical" for the welfare the Palestinian population.

Norway is the chair of the international donor group to the Palestinian territories, known as the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee. It was a facilitator in the 1992-93 talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that led to the Oslo Accords providing for limited Palestinian self-rule.

On Nov. 2, Israel said it would proceed with a tax revenue transfer to the PA in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but would withhold funds bound for Hamas-ruled Gaza, where the PA helps cover public sector wages and pay for electricity.

Israel's decision came after an internal cabinet debate over whether to make the transfer as Israel battles Hamas militants that rule the Gaza Strip.

On Nov. 6, the PA said it would not accept a partial transfer from Israel. It is estimated to spend some 30% of its budget in Gaza, where it also pays for medicine and social assistance programs.

"We call on Israel to maintain the agreed transfer of what is Palestinian value creation, because these are taxes and VAT and financial sources (of income)," Stoere told Reuters in an interview in Oslo.

The tax transfer helped deliver essential services in Gaza and in the West Bank, he said, so withholding it was "directly affecting the welfare and health of the Palestinian population".

"Norway has been very clear that any development towards (the) breakdown of the PA will only serve the extremist forces on the Palestinian side," he added.

Stoere did not say how much the withholding of money was worth but said it was "a substantial amount".

The Western-backed PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank but does not administer Gaza, where rival Hamas seized control in a brief civil war in 2007. The PA still has thousands of Gaza civil servants on its payroll.

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Syria Forms Committee to Draft Transitional Constitutional Declaration

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Forms Committee to Draft Transitional Constitutional Declaration

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced on Sunday the formation of a committee to draft a constitutional declaration for the country's transition after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The new authorities are focused on rebuilding Syria and its institutions after Assad's removal on December 8, ending more than half a century of his family's iron-fisted rule and 13 years of devastating war.

The presidency announced "the formation of a committee of experts", including one woman, tasked with drafting "the constitutional declaration that regulates the transitional phase" in Syria.

The seven-member committee would "submit its proposals to the president", it said in a statement, without specifying a timeframe.

In late January, Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which spearheaded Assad's overthrow, was appointed interim president for an unspecified period.

Syria's new authorities have repealed the Assad-era constitution, and Sharaa has said rewriting it could take up to three years.

In late January, Sharaa promised a "constitutional declaration" to serve as a "legal reference" during the country's transitional period.

Sunday's announcement came "based on the Syrian people's aspirations in building their state based on the rule of law, and building on the outcomes of the Syrian national dialogue conference", said the presidency.

It also came "with the aim of preparing the legal framework regulating the transitional phase", it added.

A national dialogue conference held this week in Damascus set out a path for the new Syria.

The committee includes Abdul Hamid al-Awak, who holds a doctorate in constitutional law and lectures at a university in Turkiye, and Yasser al-Huwaish, who was appointed this year as dean of Damascus university's law faculty.

It also includes Bahia Mardini, a journalist with a doctorate in law who has been living in Britain, and Ismail al-Khalfan, who holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law, and who this year was appointed law faculty dean at Aleppo university.

Another committee member, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law from Idlib university, where he graduated in 2023.

The final statement of this week's dialogue conference called for "a constitutional committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the country that achieves balance between authorities, sets the values of justice, freedom and equality, and establishes a state of law an institutions".

Syria's conflict broke out in 2011 after Assad brutally repressed anti-government protests.

It spiraled into a complex conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more domestically and abroad and battered the economy, infrastructure and industry.

In December, a caretaker government was appointed to steer the country until March 1, when a new government was due to be formed.