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PA Demands a Halt to Israel’s Deduction of Tax Revenues

Part of the pledging conference. (WAFA)
Part of the pledging conference. (WAFA)
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PA Demands a Halt to Israel’s Deduction of Tax Revenues

Part of the pledging conference. (WAFA)
Part of the pledging conference. (WAFA)

The Palestinian Authority put forward two main demands during the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) pledging conference in New York on Thursday.

It called on Israel to halt deductions from tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians and underlined the need to amend the Paris Economic Protocol.

Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara underscored the importance of the international community’s immediate intervention to pressure Israel to return the full and undiminished Palestinian financial rights and stop its piracy of tax revenues, in violation of international law and bilateral agreements.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) meeting in New York.

The PA, which presented many financial and legal issues, hopes to persuade the donor countries to pump money into its financially ailing treasury.

The Authority is suffering from its worst financial crisis due to Israel’s continued deduction of funds from Palestinian tax revenues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decline in foreign aid.

It has been paying partial salaries to most of its employees since early 2022 due to this outstanding crisis.

It launched financial reforms, including a plan to send thousands of employees to retirement in order to reduce the wage bill.

The PA is supposed to launch next month a plan that allows employees to retire voluntarily, to be followed in a second stage by a plan for compulsory retirement.

Bishara also reviewed the performance of the public finances in 2022’s budget.

He underlined the significant development in the growth of revenues, noting that the total revenues amounted to $3.4 billion during the period from 2021, up 21%, due to boosting tax collection procedures, increased tax compliance, and the Ministry’s approach to improve revenues and reduce expenditures.

Meanwhile, he pointed to the relative decrease in expenditures between January until August 2022 by 2%, compared to the same period in 2021.

The decrease was concentrated in operating expenses, and the same period saw a 20% increase in development expenses.

The Minister expected the fiscal deficit to further decrease by late 2022, as a result of rationalizing expenditures and raising incomes.

This means that the GDP deficit ratio will be less than 2%, which is a positive indicator and much lower than the 2021 levels at 4.2%.

Bishara also mentioned the reforms to the wage bill, net lending, restructuring the health system, reducing the cost of medical referrals, as well as a plan to increase revenues and rely on Palestinian financial resources to reduce the deficit and achieve financial sustainability.

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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers, an Israeli tank could be seen maneuvering in the middle of the street.
Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.
The Israeli military has also made incursions into Syrian territory outside of the buffer zone, sparking protests by local residents. They said the Israeli forces had demolished homes and prevented farmers from going to their fields in some areas. On at least two occasions, Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on protesters who approached them.
Residents of Quneitra, a seemingly serene bucolic expanse of small villages and olive groves, said they are frustrated, both by the Israeli advances and by the lack of action from Syria’s new authorities and the international community.
Rinata Fastas said that Israeli forces had raided the local government buildings but had not so far entered residential neighborhoods. Her house lies just inside of the newly blocked-off area in the provincial capital formerly called Baath City, after Assad's former ruling party, and now renamed Salam City.
She said she is afraid Israeli troops may advance farther or try to permanently occupy the area they have already taken. Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, with the exception of the US, regards it as occupied.
Fastas said she understands that Syria, which is now trying to build its national institutions and army from scratch, is no position to militarily confront Israel.
“But why is no one in the new Syrian state coming out and talking about the violations that are happening in Quneitra province and against the rights of its people?” she asked.
The United Nations has accused Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire agreement by entering the buffer zone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said troops will stay on "until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.” He was speaking from the snowy peak of Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain known as Jabal al Sheikh in Arabic, which has now been captured by Israeli forces.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the military will remain in the area it has taken until it is satisfied that the new Syrian authorities do not pose a danger to Israel.
The new Syrian government has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council about Israeli airstrikes and advances into Syrian territory.
The country’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has also publicly said Syria is not seeking a military conflict with Israel and will not pose a threat to its neighbors or to the West.
In the meantime, residents of Quneitra have largely been left to fend for themselves.
In the village of Rafid, inside the buffer zone, locals said the Israeli military had demolished two civilian houses and a grove of trees as well as a former Syrian army outpost.
Mayor Omar Mahmoud Ismail said when the Israeli forces entered the village, an Israeli officer greeted him and told him, “I am your friend.”
“I told him, ‘You are not my friend, and if you were, you wouldn’t enter like this,’" Ismail said.
Locals who organized a protest were met with Israeli fire
In Dawaya, a village outside the buffer zone, 18-year-old Abdelrahman Khaled al-Aqqa was lying on a mattress in his family home Sunday, still recovering after being shot in both legs. Al-Aqqa said he joined about 100 people from the area on Dec. 25 in protest against the Israeli incursion, chanting “Syria is free, Israel get out!”
“We didn’t have any weapons, we were just there in the clothes we were wearing,” he said. “But when we got close to them, they started shooting at us.”
Six protesters were wounded, according to residents and media reports. Another man was injured on Dec. 20 in a similar incident in the village of Maariyah. The Israeli army said at the time that it had fired because the man was quickly approaching and ignored calls to stop.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Dec. 25 incident.
Adel Subhi al-Ali, a local Sunni religious official, sat with his 21-year-old son, Moutasem, who was recovering after being shot in the stomach in the Dec. 25 protest. He was driven first to a local hospital that did not have the capacity to treat him, and then to Damascus where he underwent surgery.
When he saw the Israeli tanks moving in, “We felt that an occupation is occupying our land. So we had to defend it, even though we didn’t have weapons, ... It is impossible for them to settle here,” al-Ali said.
Since the day of the protest, the Israeli army has not returned to the area, he said.
Al-Ali called for the international community to “pressure Israel to return to what was agreed upon with the former regime,” referring to the 1974 ceasefire agreement, and to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
But he acknowledged that Syria has little leverage.
“We are starting from zero, we need to build a state,” al-Ali said, echoing Syria's new leaders. “We are not ready as a country now to open wars with another country."