A Financial and Political Siege on the Palestinian National Authority

-        Date: 28-6-2018

·       The American stick and carrot

-        Indicators continue to point to the convergence of the financial siege and the political siege on the Palestinian National Authority, using them for political purposes that date back to what is happening now with the "Deal of the Century" project regarding the Palestinian cause. The preliminary results of the Palestinian balance of payments in the first quarter of 2018 indicated the continuation of a deficit in the current account (goods, services, income, external transfers) that reached 442.1 million US dollars, an increase of 45.6% compared with the deficit in the previous quarter. The reason for this is attributed to a decrease in current transfers to the government from donors by 77.6% compared with the previous quarter...

-        This came in a statement issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) on 25-6-2018 concerning the preliminary results of the Palestinian balance of payments for the first quarter of 2018... in addition to what was announced yesterday, that the American administration will notify the Palestinian Authority today, Thursday, 28-6-2018, of its decision, calmly, to freeze the assistance that the US government provides to the Palestinian Authority, which is estimated at more than 215 million US dollars annually unless it submits to American conditions.

-        Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Israeli Knesset approved the "Law to Deduct the Allocations for Prisoners and Martyrs from Palestinian Tax Funds," regardless of any international agreements such as the Paris Economic Protocol, annexed to the Oslo Agreement of 1993, and which has been defunct for decades with its appendices. It is an open plunder... by the occupation of Palestinian funds. An amount of 1.1 billion shekels represents, from the Israelis' point of view, 7% of the Palestinian Authority's budget, allocated to pay the salaries of Palestinian prisoners and martyrs; this amount will be deducted from the Palestinian tax funds called "clearing revenues," which amount monthly to 210 million dollars, i.e., equivalent to 750 million shekels monthly, collected by Israel and transferred from customs and tax revenues paid by Palestinians on imports to the Palestinian Authority.

-        It is worth noting that the American administration has conditioned several requirements on the Palestinian Authority to restore the flow of assistance again, the first of which is the cancellation of the payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs, in addition to the repeal of the legal legislations issued by the Palestinian side regarding that, and other related conditions...

-        The US State Department previously announced that it would reduce the annual assistance provided as donations and contributions from the United States to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where the United States contributes a total of about 125 million dollars annually, making it the largest donor to UNRWA...

-        It is worth noting that about half a million students from the children of Palestinian refugees benefit from UNRWA's education program, in addition to health and relief services for about 5 million Palestinian refugees, and there are also monthly salaries for more than 30,000 employees and staff at the "UNRWA" agency for educational and health purposes...

-        As for assistance from some Arab countries, particularly the Gulf states, we do not know whether its continuity is stable or not; this is an age of surprises and a time of wonders and unbelievable matters. The era of the sanctity of religious ties and nationalist principles has been unraveled... there amid changes in the new Gulf political behavior. If the circumstances surrounding the cause are exploited to tighten the noose on the Palestinians by their Arab brethren, what is coming will be a catastrophe, for the Palestinian Authority will not be able to meet its monthly obligations to pay the public and military employees' salaries, and torture by material deprivation and choking will be imposed, exactly like the policy of torturing prisoners by the method of "waterboarding" until the prisoner yields to the will of his jailer..!!!!

·       It is time for our statesmen to take the interests of the Palestinian people into account in light of these developments, and to review priorities and sieve entrenched convictions within the framework of the basic interests of the Palestinian people, and to anticipate hardship and pain in the Palestinian arena. Money is necessary for the daily life of Palestinians, but... not at the expense of their constants and their existence on their land, which is subject to attempts at political assassination. The strong is "disgraceful" and the rich is "disgraceful".....and political equations change according to interests... And I am for maintaining contacts and talks with the American side according to flexible visions..and I am not for cutting them off.... Let us move away from the umbrella of the Arab rulers in matters of the cause.... and let us bet on the umbrella of the Arab peoples... after first betting primarily on the ability of the Palestinian people throughout the world to be creative.... and on their loyal leaderships, for there must be a dialogue with the Palestinian diaspora and zones of Palestinian influence abroad, after restoring cohesion to the single Palestinian body, and ending.... the internal Palestinian conflict that our exhausted bodies have lived more than a decade with.....and there is no justification..everyone is at fault....
And God is the intention...