Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned Monday that Israeli sanctions on the Palestinian Authority “will promptly lead to its collapse.”
Speaking to Haaretz, Shtayyeh was referring to the retaliatory sanctions the Israeli cabinet imposed over the weekend on the PA, including seizing 140 million shekels ($39 million) in tax revenues.
“The measure is another nail in the Palestinian Authority’s coffin, unless there is immediate intervention by the international community, namely the administration in Washington and Arab countries.”
The Prime Minister considered these measures as a new war against the Palestinian people, their resources and funds.
“We’re reading the map as clearly as possible: Increasing settlement construction while severing Jerusalem from the West Bank, annexing Area C and now crushing the PA – that is the program guiding the Israeli government,” Shtayyeh said.
The PM dismissed the Israeli claims accusing the PA’s request from the UN to give its opinion on Israel’s control of the West Bank as one-sided.
“Any occupation is one-sided, the construction in the settlements is one-sided, everything is one-sided – and if we turn to the UN and the international community – that’s forbidden and one-sided?,” he asked.
Shtayyeh's warnings, which fell on deaf ears in Israel, came at a time when the Palestinians conveyed to their US and Israeli counterparts clear messages that the continuation of this Israeli policy will be met with Palestinian decisions, even if their outcomes lead to the “collapse of the Authority.”
Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the messages also threatened that the Palestinian leadership will activate the decisions of the Palestinian Central Council related to canceling agreements with Tel Aviv and suspending recognition of Israel.
The messages said the PA does not care if its decisions lead to retaliatory Israeli measures that will lead to its collapse, affirming that everyone must pay the price for their actions.
Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah on Monday, Shtayyeh accused Israel of trying to cause the collapse of the PA by undermining it financially and institutionally and impede its performance and provision of services to its people.
However, he stressed that “acts of piracy, looting and vengeance practiced by the occupying Power will not discourage our people and our leadership from continuing in their political, diplomatic and legal struggle. We do not barter our right to self-determination and our freedom for money or privileges.”
Last Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed a decree to block 139 million shekels ($39.6 million) in tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority and redirect it to families of victims, as part of punitive measures against the PA’s international legal action against Israel, decided upon by the government.
When Smotrich was asked whether he was concerned the move could bring about the collapse of the PA, he said: “As long as the Palestinian Authority encourages terror and is an enemy, I have no interest for it to continue to exist.”
The move is one of the steps approved by the government on Friday to penalize the Palestinians in retaliation for their push for the UN’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on Israel’s control of the West Bank.
The other punitive measures against the PA include the revocation of travel permits for top Palestinian officials that allow them to travel easily in and out of the West Bank, unlike ordinary Palestinians, and the freezing of Palestinian construction in parts of the West Bank.
Smotrich on Sunday hailed a years-long campaign to offset the PA’s regular payments to terror convicts and to families of dead Palestinian attackers, calling it a “just struggle…not only in providing retroactive justice, but also as a deterrent.”
Israel has made such deductions in the past, following 2018 legislation on the matter, but only partially upholds the policy, as officials are keenly aware that the PA is dangerously close to financial collapse.
The new Israeli decision puts more pressure on the Authority's already faltering finances.
According to Shtayyeh, the PA is planning to turn to Arab League countries and ask them to implement previous commitments to provide the Palestinians with an economic safety net.
The PA also plans to request additional support from the US and Europe.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is slated to visit Ramallah later this month, and Shtayyeh said the PA intends to demand the US advance steps to prevent its collapse and halt the Israeli attempt “to crush the two-state solution.”
Beyond “positive statements,” the Biden administration has so far done little to present a different policy than its predecessor in confronting Israel, Shtayyeh told Haaretz.
