Israel freezes funds it says help attackers’ households

Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday froze practically USD 200 million in tax transfers to the Palestinians that it stated represented the amount of cash the Palestinians transferred to the households of alleged attackers final yr.
Under interim peace agreements, Israel collects a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in taxes for the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority. The tax transfers are a key supply of funding for the cash-strapped Palestinians.
Israel has lengthy objected to the Palestinian “martyrs fund,” which supplies stipends to hundreds of households which have had kinfolk killed, wounded or imprisoned within the battle with Israel.
The Palestinians say the funds are a kind of welfare system meant to help households affected by the battle. But Israel says such funds function rewards and incentives for violence.
In its choice, the Security Cabinet permitted a suggestion by Defense Minister Benny Gantz to freeze some 597 million shekels — or roughly USD 180 million — for what it known as “indirect support of terrorism” in 2020. It stated the funds can be frozen on a month-to-month foundation out of funds that Israel transfers to the Palestinians.

For the Palestinians, the households of attackers are extensively seen as victims of a half century of Israeli occupation. The Palestinians say that many Palestinians are unfairly held by Israel and that the variety of prisoners concerned in lethal assaults is a small proportion of these aided by the fund.
Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian fee for detainees’ affairs, accused Israel of stealing Palestinians funds, calling the choice a “crime and piracy.”
The official Palestinian information company Wafa stated that President Mahmoud Abbas spoke by phone Sunday with Israel’s new president, Isaac Herzog.
It stated Abbas known as for a “comprehensive calm” in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and known as for steps that may create circumstances for a “achieving a just and comprehensive peace.”
The assertion made no point out of the frozen tax transfers.