Israel’s finance minister confiscates Palestinian money to compensate Israeli victims of attacks

Israel’s finance minister confiscates Palestinian money to compensate Israeli victims of attacks
A demonstrator holds a Palestinian flag facing Israeli forces near Tulkarm in June 2020. Israel, which collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, would use $29m from PA funds to compensate victims of Palestinian attacks. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 03 February 2023

Israel’s finance minister confiscates Palestinian money to compensate Israeli victims of attacks

Israel’s finance minister confiscates Palestinian money to compensate Israeli victims of attacks
  • The amount to be deducted is double the amount normally confiscated monthly
  • This is not the first time that Israeli authorities have confiscated Palestinian tax revenues as “compensation” to the families of Israelis

RAMALLAH: Israel, which collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, would use 100 million shekels ($29 million) from PA funds to compensate victims of Palestinian attacks, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said.
The amount to be deducted is double the amount normally confiscated monthly — $14.7 million — in the first such move since Smotrich took office.
Smotrich signed off orders, claiming these funds would normally be transferred by the PA to the families of prisoners and those carrying out attacks against the occupation.
This is not the first time that Israeli authorities have confiscated Palestinian tax revenues as “compensation” to the families of Israelis killed and injured in Palestinian operations.
On Jan. 8, Smotrich ordered the seizure of $40.5 million from the PA’s funds as part of the sanctions he decided to impose on the Palestinians.
The sums deducted by Israel between 2011 and 2021 under this clause reached $11 billion.
In 2022 alone, the total unilateral Israeli deductions from Palestinian tax revenues amounted to $450 million.
A senior PA economic official, who preferred anonymity, told Arab News that the Israeli decision to double the deductions would exacerbate the financial crisis the PA has been suffering from for over a year.
“This is a deliberate attempt to weaken and undermine the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“Considering the rise in prices and the increase in financial obligations for public sector employees, the additional deductions will make the PA unable to even pay 80 percent of the monthly salary to its employees, which will weaken the security establishment and push people to support violence against Israel,” he added.
The authority, he said, had exceeded the limit allowed to borrow from the Palestinian banks, and it was concerned that if it continued to borrow, it would cause a shock to the Palestinian banking sector.
Ahmed Majdalani, Palestinian social development minister, told Arab News that the additional Israeli cuts would impact the private sector as well as the Palestinian government’s ability to pay salaries and provide welfare for impoverished Palestinian families.
“Israel is pushing the PA to the brink of inability to fulfill its obligations, which aggravates the Palestinian situation and weakens PA institutions, including the security services,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have arrested 27 Palestinians from the West Bank, most of them from Ramallah, transferred five Jerusalemites to administrative detention for three to six months, and demolished two houses in Duma village, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
Suleiman Dawabsha, the head of the Duma village council, told Arab News that large forces from the Israeli army, accompanied by a military bulldozer, stormed the eastern area of the village and demolished the homes.
At the same time, the houses of 15 more people were threatened with demolition.
In a separate incident, an Israeli settler attacked a child from Hawara, south of Nablus, with pepper spray.
The settler stopped Suleiman Al-Mukhtar’s vehicle on the main street in the town and shot pepper spray through the car window at the face of his 14-year-old son, Faisal.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said the month of January saw 150 attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians, including an attempt to establish six new settlement outposts. It added that 72 attacks were carried out in Nablus.
Meanwhile, 160 Palestinian and American human rights and humanitarian organizations have called on the US Congress to stop funding the “massacres” committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.
They stressed the need for Congress to take immediate political measures to stop arming Israel by ending its military funding.
Amnesty International has called on Israeli authorities to dismantle the “apartheid” system, which is upheld by “unlawful killings” that constitute “crimes against humanity.”
It also condemned other grave and ongoing violations committed by Israeli authorities, such as administrative detention and forcible transfer of detainees.
In its statement, the organization said Israeli authorities controlled virtually every aspect of the lives of Palestinians, “subjecting them to oppression and unfair discrimination daily through the fragmentation of regions and legal segregation.”
People in the occupied Palestinian territories are isolated in enclaves, with those living in the Gaza Strip cut off from the rest of the world by Israel’s illegal blockade, which has caused a humanitarian crisis, a form of collective punishment, Amnesty said.
Elsewhere, Hamas condemned the opening of the Chadian Embassy in Israel on Thursday, calling on Chad to review its decision, which contradicts the position of the country’s people, who have historically supported Palestine.
Separately, the Islamic-Christian Organization for the Support of Jerusalem and Sanctities denounced an attack by settlers on a church in the Old City of Jerusalem.
It described the vandalism of the church as “a dangerous transgression by the settlers toward everything that is not Jewish in Jerusalem.”
The Israeli police said the culprit was an American tourist in his 40s who has been arrested.
Press reports said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his visit, pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a security plan formulated by US Security Coordinator Gen. Michael Wenzel to restore the authority’s control over the cities of Nablus and Jenin, which have become centers of unrest.
The plan includes training a special Palestinian force to confront militants in the occupied West Bank.
“Such a security plan will never succeed because it has nothing to do with reality. The security problem in both Jenin and Nablus is not limited to suppressing those who resist Israel,” Jenin Gov. Maj. Gen. Akram Rajoub told Arab News.

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Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
Updated 24 March 2023

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
  • Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war

BEIRUT: The Daesh group killed 15 people foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged central Syria by cutting their throats, while 40 others are missing, a war monitor said Friday.
Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
Since February, at least 150 people — most of them civilians — have been killed by IS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by land mines left by the extremists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“At least 15 people, including seven civilians and eight local pro-regime fighters, were killed by Daesh fighters who slit their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Forty others are missing following the attack in Hama province, he added.
Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.
Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert, or Badia — a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with land mines.
Foragers risk their lives to collect the delicacies, despite repeated warnings about land mines and Daesh fighters.
Earlier this month, Daesh fighters killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria, according to the monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources inside Syria.
That attack happened near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory.


Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
Updated 24 March 2023

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
  • Blaze in Marrakech trapped father of two, worker in ‘truly horrific incident’
  • They died from smoke inhalation despite efforts of paramedics, police, firefighters

LONDON: A British man and a hotel worker have died in a fire that broke out at a resort in Marrakech on Wednesday, The Sun reported.

The blaze broke out in a spa in the five-star Jaal Riad Resort, trapping the father of two and the hotel worker inside.

They died from smoke inhalation despite the efforts of paramedics, police and firefighters who rushed to the scene.

A source described it as a “truly horrific incident,” adding that the Briton “was a tourist visiting the area with friends and they have had to break the news to his family. Everyone is heartbroken.”

A fire service spokesman said: “We can’t comment further because of an ongoing investigation.”


Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
Updated 24 March 2023

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
  • Imams to be sent to France for same purpose; Germany and Belgium have made similar requests
  • Italy made request ‘so all Muslims will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan,’ Interior Ministry source tells Arab News

ROME: Twenty-nine imams from Algeria will be sent by their government to Italy to help local imams perform Taraweeh prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The imams will be sent “upon a specific request by the Italian authorities,” Algerian Religious Affairs Minister Youssef Belmehdi told state radio.

He added that 128 imams will be sent to France for the same purpose, and that Germany and Belgium have made similar requests.

A source in Italy’s Interior Ministry told Arab News that the request for imams from Algeria was made “so that all Muslims in Italy will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan.” The source said Algeria’s government “enthusiastically and promptly agreed” to the request.

Giuseppe Ciutti, a Catholic priest who is engaged in ecumenical dialogue, told Arab News: “At such an important time as Ramadan for Muslims, it’s important that everyone can get good spiritual assistance.”

According to the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, 2.5 million Muslims live in the country, comprising 4.7 percent of the total population. Moroccans represent the largest Muslim community in Italy.


Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
Updated 24 March 2023

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
  • Protesters clashed with French security forces in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt
  • Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday urged France to listen to protesters and avoid violence after more than 450 people were arrested and nearly as many police were injured in demonstrations against pension reforms.
Protesters clashed with French security forces on Thursday in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age.
“The French government must talk to its people and listen to their voices,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tweeted.
“We do not support destruction or rioting, but we maintain that instead of creating chaos in other countries, listen to the voice of your people and avoid violence against them,” he added.
Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini after the 22-year-old’s arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Hundreds of people have been killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested in connection with what Iranian officials described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for its response to the protest movement, led mostly by women.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” Kanani said, adding that such “violence contradicts sitting on the chair of morality lessons and preaching to others.”
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 457 people had been arrested and 441 members of the security forces injured the day before during the protests.
Darmanin dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform.
“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”


Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
Updated 24 March 2023

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
  • ‘The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary’

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s violated the law by saying he would get personally involved in a judicial overhaul plan, the attorney-general said on Friday.
In the face of intensifying protests against the proposed changes, Netanyahu said on Thursday that he was putting aside all other considerations and would do “anything it takes” to reach a solution.
Netanyahu added that his hands had been tied, but a new law limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed gave him more space for maneuver.
However, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, in a letter addressed to Netanyahu, disagreed.
“The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary, including the makeup of the committee for the appointment of judges, as such activity is a conflict of interest.”
“Your statement last night and any action you take in violation of this matter is illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest,” Baharav-Miara added.

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