Israel on Friday announced that it would apply sanctions against the Palestinian Authority in response to the PA’s request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel’s occupation of territories in the West Bank.
Among the sanctions: about $40 million in tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the PA will be given to families of Israeli victims who were attacked by Palestinian assailants, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Israel will also deduct from the tax revenues the amount that the PA provides to the families of individuals who were jailed for, or killed while committing, acts of violence against Israelis, a practice that the Israeli government and some Western countries have criticized as encouraging terrorism. In addition, Israel will withdraw certain benefits it granted to senior Palestinian officials and freeze construction projects for Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Israeli security cabinet took the decision to sanction the PA after its first meeting on Thursday, a week after the new Israeli government was sworn-in.
In response to Israel’s announcement, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said, “The measures taken by the Israeli government in response to the Palestinian moves at the UN are condemned and unacceptable.” He asserted that “the Palestinian people and its leadership are capable of protecting the rights endorsed by the UN resolutions, whatever the price” and said that the Palestinians would continue “the political, diplomatic and legal struggle to end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine. … The extremist Israeli government seeks escalation to drag the region to the brink of explosion.”
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a statement that “Israeli measures won’t discourage us from pursuing their government in international institutions and forums” and added that the Palestinian people and its leadership “will expose the policies of the Israeli government that it implements against the Palestinian people.”